The couple, who wish to remain anonymous, claimed their prize at NZ Lotteries’ Wellington office.
“We feel so very very lucky, we’re still in shock!” said the winners as they claimed their prize.
“The West Coast is a very special place, and the people past and present are also very special. We’ve been granted a wonderful gift, but for now, we will continue with current plans,” said the winners.
The winners discovered their win soon after the draw on Wednesday night when they checked their ticket against the winning numbers online.
“I wrote the numbers on the top of the ticket and started checking them off – I checked off about two, and then the winning line just seemed to leap out at me, it was surreal.
“We were too shocked to celebrate, I just had a beer and went to bed, but neither of us slept a wink,” said one of the winners.
Once the prize was discovered, the winning ticket was tucked away in a travel security pouch around one of the winner’s neck.
“It was very safe, only I was so worked up about the win I must have sweated a lot – it soaked through the pouch and into the ticket. Fortunately it didn’t to any damage, but we thought it was quite funny handing over a ticket with sweat marks on it!” laughed the winners.
One thing the winners won’t be doing is jetting off for Christmas overseas – “We’re sticking with our original plan of going camping – it’s just the Kiwi thing to do at Christmas,” they said.
As the winners chose to cover both Heads and Tails on their Big Wednesday entry, they won both First and Second Divisions in last Wednesday’s draw.
The First Division prize package was worth $8,412,300, and consisted a Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4, an Audi Q7, a Rayglass 2200 boat, $50,000 cash towards luxury travel, $50,000 Platinum VISA card, $675,000 cash towards a bach, as well as $7 million cash – though no-one will be spotting a new lamborghini in Greymouth any time soon as the winners elected to take all of their prizes as the cash equivalent.
“A brand new lamborghini would certainly be hard to hide in Greymouth, so we are not surprised our winner has not taken up this option,” said Mr McLeay.
Added to this First Division prize line-up was a Second Division prize of $73,280, bringing their total winnings to $8,485,580.
