Priceless family time after Lotto win

A Timaru couple who scooped the city’s largest Lotto powerball win say the prize enables them to do something money can’t buy — spend time with their family.

The couple have had sleepless nights since winning $7.25 million on Saturday night.

“My husband was watching the Lotto draw, while I was mucking around on the iPad,” the winner said.

“Then all of a sudden he looked up from the ticket and he just had this strange look on his face, so the first thing I said was ‘ what’s wrong?’

“That’s when he said ‘we’ve just got First Division’ and handed me the ticket to look at. I must admit I nearly went mad,” said the winner.

“We called our kids into the room and we were all checking and double-checking the ticket to make sure we had it right. But of course we had no idea how much we’d won, so we had to wait half an hour for the final results to come up on MyLotto.

“When we saw that there was only one winner of $7.25m — well, that’s when we really started celebrating.

“We were hugging each other and jumping around the lounge, there were even a few tears.

“Then we all took turns taking photos with the ticket.”

The couple did not manage to get much sleep that night — or since.

Heading into their local Lotto shop bleary-eyed, the couple handed over their ticket to get confirmation they were millions of dollars richer.

The couple are starting to think about how they might want to spend their windfall — and getting some shut-eye.

“We’ve been talking about a new car, or maybe a new house — but it’s really the things that money can’t buy we’re most excited about, like time with family,” the winner said.

“As a family we can now make some decisions that will set us up for the future, while meaning we can spend time together and create more special memories.”

The winning ticket was sold at Countdown Church St in Timaru.