The winner, who wishes to remain anonymous, popped into Paper Plus Upper Hutt to get out of the rain and thought she’d buy a couple of Winter Escape tickets to scratch when she got home.
After warming up over a soup lunch with her husband, the winner gave her husband a ticket and began scratching the other ticket.
“I saw that I had one gold bar and thought it was a good sign,” says the winner.
“As I scratched some more, a second gold bar appeared and I was thinking that I only needed one more to win $75,000,” she adds.
“When the third gold bar came up, the tears just started pouring down my face, I just couldn’t believe it,” says the winner.
Her husband checked the ticket and then she checked the ticket four or five times before taking it to the store to claim their winnings.
“The weather down here has been so grim of late, this win has really brightened up our lives,” says the winner.
They plan to share their winnings with their kids and to do some touring round the upper North Island once winter is over.
There are two top prizes of $75,000 remaining on the Winter Escape ticket.
