Powerball win of $7m is claimed

A Timaru supermarket manager says it was hard to keep one of the town’s biggest secrets quiet.

It was announced yesterday that a Timaru couple, who wish to remain anonymous, claimed their $7.25 million winning Lotto ticket from Saturday night’s draw, on Sunday morning at Countdown Church St, the store they had purchased the ticket.

Countdown Church St store manager Debbie Pawson said until the winning ticket had been officially received by Lotto New Zealand, she had been sworn to secrecy.

‘‘All I can say now is they are local,’’ Pawson said. ‘‘We are really happy for them and we know it’s going to make their Christmas amazing for quite a while.’’

The win is the third big one for the supermarket with a First Division and a Big Winner Instant Kiwi ticket both sold there since August 2016.

In a statement release by Lotto New Zealand the winning couple said they hadn’t had a wink of sleep since.

‘‘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,’’ the winner said.

‘‘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 $7.25 million – well, that’s when we really started celebrating.

‘‘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.

It is the largest Powerball prize ever won in South Canterbury, following a Powerball win of $7m, won two years ago.