My new life as a millionaire
LOTTO WINNER
Tauranga’s $10.3 million Powerball winner will sit down with Gareth Morgan today to compare notes on becoming a millionaire. Lou Te Keeti said he’s been inundated with messages from hundreds of well-wishes — and received numerous Facebook friend requests — since outing himself on the weekend.
Along with those messages he’s also been in contact with Morgan, the Opportunities Party leader and an early investor and director of Trade Me.
Morgan, who came into $50m after the sale of TradeMe, said he was keen on comparing “notes on getting a windfall overnight and how disturbing it can be to your life”.
He said he identified with Te Keeti’s story. After becoming a multi-millionaire he realigned his priorities on how best to spend the money responsibly and his wife played a big role in keeping his head “screwed on” — much the same as Te Keeti’s wife appears to be doing.
Te Keeti, who is in his 70s, wanted to buy his wife Val her a “dream house” but she stormed out telling him he could “get stuffed with my fancy plans”. She later touched the walls of their home of 30 years as she explained “a big fancy house” wasn’t them. Te Keeti said people seemed genuinely pleased for him and his whanau, with some of the mes
sages of support coming from as far as Europe. “The messages were very heartfelt. People said they identified with us.
“Many said they identified with the pragmatic and down-to-earth approach from my wife, Val . . . many said they were moved by her touching the wall [of their house] and some said they found that emotional, the way a home is special because it retains and builds memories, not because it is fancy or has fancy things.”
He said he had deleted some messages from people seeking money. “While I had no adverse comments, of course there were some idiots saying ‘oh can you please give me $50,000 or something’. And then there were messages from businesses offering their services. I responded respectfully, saying ‘thanks for offering investment services, or this or that, I will be in touch should I need them’.”
He said he also had scores of friend requests on Facebook. He spent Sunday with his mokopuna who “were totally unfazed“by the fact that people now knew koro was a multi-millionaire. His wife was still coming to terms with it. “My wife is still overwhelmed by the whole win. She is a very private person. I don’t want to elevate myself, that is not my role as kaitiaki. My role is to look after our past, look to our ancestors, look after my whanau and hapu, and be a guardian of our land, of the river and protect it for future generations.” Te Keeti is giving $300,000 of his winnings to Waipuna Hospice, the local Heart Foundation, and a local diabetes charity. He has asked if the money could be used locally, and where possible for Maori. He’s also using some of his winnings as a “fighting fund” to reopen negotiations for his family’s Treaty of Waitangi claim. Morgan said he thought he would have things in common with Te Keeti, and would also like to talk to him about the Treaty claim as he had done “lots of work in this area“. “He might identify with the party because we champion the underdog . . . our philosophy is that policies such be built on fairness.”