A Hamilton woman has described "getting the shakes" after winning $16.5 million with Powerball First Division over the long weekend.
The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, was enjoying a long weekend away with her husband and close friends when she discovered she had just become the country’s newest Powerball multi-millionaire, Lotto said today in a press release.
“We had just returned to the house after a morning walk and were deciding what to do with the rest of the day when I decided to quickly check my emails and saw an email from MyLotto letting me know that I had won a major prize,” the woman said.
She said she was "over the moon" after mistakenly believing she had just won $16,500.
It wasn’t until the winner handed her phone to her friend so they could take a look that she discovered just how lucky she had become.
“My friend took one look at the ticket and said, ‘Hang on, you’ve actually won a bit more than that – you’ve missed a few zeroes!’”
She and her husband then took another look and "realised what we thought were full stops were actually commas, and we’d really won $16.5 million".
“I truly couldn’t believe it – neither of us could! I got the shakes and had to sit down,” she said.
After taking a moment to catch their breath, the winner and her husband called their kids to let them know the life-changing news.
“Half the fun of buying a Powerball ticket is imagining what you’d do if you won big – it’s something I love doing with the family.
“So when I called the kids to share the good news, it took some time to convince them that I’d actually won. When they finally believed me, there were plenty of tears from all of us – it’s absolutely life-changing.”
She said the prize will make "such a huge difference to our lives – and the lives of our family".
"We’re going to use the winnings to set ourselves up for retirement and make sure the kids are looked after. It’s truly unbelievable to think that we can do all the things we’ve dreamed of doing over the years."
The winning ticket was sold online at MyLotto for the draw on Saturday.
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