Auckland grandparents claim $13.2 million half-share of Powerball

A pair of Auckland grandparents won half of the $26 million Powerball jackpot on Saturday night.

The other winner — with a ticket bought in Hastings — has not yet come forward, after the Powerball jackpot was split between two winners for the first time in three years.

The Auckland grandparents struck it lucky by winning $13.2 million with a ticket bought from Kumeu Four Square. The couple hadn’t realised until the following day that they were holding the lucky ticket, Lotto said in a statement.

The winner, who wants to remain anonymous, said she checked the numbers online and quickly saw she had all six numbers and the Powerball on one line. “I said ‘so we won’. “Of course my husband thought I was having him on.”

The couple took the ticket to a local Lotto store to have it confirmed.

“That’s when I went weak at the knees,” she said.

“And for some reason I started laughing and couldn’t stop. It was such a great feeling.”

The couple told their children, with whom they intend to share the prize.

“My daughter started screaming and laughing and shouting ‘Mum’s a millionaire!”’

The couple plan to buy their own house, a holiday house for the children and grandchildren to enjoy spending time at together, and a boat to please the grandfather.