A Northland couple are celebrating after claiming their big $5.5 million Powerball prize.
The winners discovered that their local Lotto store had sold a big winning ticket at home on Thursday morning.
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"My husband had gotten up to make us a cup of tea while I read the news in bed," says one of the winners.
"The first thing I saw was 'Taipa Foodmarket sells $5.5 million Powerball prize', so when my husband returned I mentioned it to see whether that's where he'd picked up our ticket that week."
He grabbed the ticket from his wallet - and it didn't take long for them to realise just how lucky their little yellow piece of paper had become.
"As I read out the winning numbers, he checked them off on our ticket - he kept saying 'yes... yes... yes...' in quite a monotone voice. I was beginning to wonder what was going on," the wife says.
"But when I read out the Powerball number, he looked at me and said 'it's us - we've bloody won it!'"
They swapped the tea for a special bottle of bubbles, then picked up the phone to let their kids in on the news. After this, they decided to tuck their ticket away and get on with life as usual.
"It was all so surreal so we wanted to take some time to get our ducks in a row and our heads around what was going on before we claimed the prize," the husband says.
So where did the lucky couple keep their $5.5 million winning Powerball ticket for the next six days?
"I tucked it in my underwear drawer of all places - let's be honest, no one is going to go poking around in there," he laughs.
With the winnings now safely in their bank account, the couple are looking forward to enjoying their prize.
"Sharing the winnings is the most important thing for us - this prize is a gift and we want to share it. We can't wait to help out the kids especially, it's going to make such a difference," the wife says.
"We're proud Northlanders and love the community we live in. We're really keen to support local businesses and give back to our local community with these winnings - we're really excited about what will be possible."
The winning ticket was sold at Taipa Foodmarket for the draw on Wednesday, May 1. This is the eighth time Powerball First Division has been struck so far this year.
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