‘ Whoa, this is for real’
Exclusive $ 10m Lotto winner’s euphoric collapse
ATauranga man who scooped $ 10.3m in the Powerball jackpot collapsed and was rushed to hospital after seeing all the zeros in his bank account.
Lou Te Keeti’s doctor later diagnosed it “as a case of euphoria”.
Te Keeti said: “I hadn’t really believed it until it hit my bank account. I was still thinking this might be a hoax, even though I had an email and had spoken to the people at the Lotto, it didn’t seem real.
“But when I opened my computer and saw my accounts, most of them were as usual with not much in, then there was this one account with all these zeros.
“It dawned and I thought ‘ whoa, this is for real’.”
He still went off to do his usual grocery shopping but started to have “flutters” in Pak’nSave.
“I was feeling not myself, quite strange, and they got me in an ambulance and I had all these tests and stayed a night in Tauranga hospital. I saw all these docs but I didn’t tell any of them that I had just won Lotto.”
His GP told him the turn was “a case of euphoria”.
Now Tauranga’s newest millionaire, who is in his 70s, is planning to use a “fighting fund” to reopen Treaty negotiations for his family’s Treaty claim.
At the time, Te Keeti had no means to pay lawyers. “But now I do.”
If successful, his case could set a precedent for other family claims.
“There is a saying, ‘ Ma te ture te ture ano e patu’ ( use the law to fight the law).
“That is what I am going to do. I am fortunate in my win. It has enabled me to care for my whanau and those in the marae. I love my family and I love my Maori people and I am going to use this money to fight for justice for my family, for my people. The wrongs, what we lost, have not been properly addressed. For the rest of my life, I will fight for this justice.”
Te Keeti is also planning an extra special 50th anniversary wedding celebration next year at his marae with his wife Val, their four adult children and seven mokopuna. The fluent te reo speaker wants to use his winnings to look after his whanau, his marae and his community.
Speaking from Wairoa Marae on the Wairoa River where he is senior kaumata and kaitiaki ( guardian), Te Keeti said he made a last- minute decision to buy a ticket online on July 8. He was unaware that anyone from Tauranga had won a big prize as he was attending a tangi for his cousin.
“I saw this email on Sunday from MyLotto but all it said was ‘ You have won a prize,’ but I thought it would be about $ 1000 and thought well that’s great, but the next day I just went to
‘ Val came back and touched the timber walls of our house and she said to me ‘ Lou, a big fancy house, that is not us, this is us’. Lou Te Keeti
the tangi and carried on as normal. It wasn’t until I spoke to them on the phone I learned the full amount, but it did not hit home until I saw it in the account.”
Two of his children live overseas in Australia so he broke the news to them over the phone.
“I don’t think they really took it in so I sent them a photo of the winning ticket.”
His wife Val was also still coming to terms with it.
“We have lived in the same house here just 250 metres from the marae and we brought all our children up here. We lived a good but very modest life. So in the days after the win I thought I would surprise Val by giving her a dream house and got all these plans to get architects and designers and what not. But instead of being happy we actually had a big barney about it and she stormed out telling me ‘ I could get stuffed with my fancy plans’.
“That was the moment I came back down to earth. I had been getting carried away with things. Val came back and touched the timber walls of our house and she said to me ‘ Lou, a big fancy house, that is not us, this is us’. And she tapped the wall and reminded me that [ the house] was made from timber from the pines in the kiwifruit orchard we used to have in the early years of our marriage.”
Te Keeti said he was not drawn to big purchases of material things.
“I need a new car and, yes, I will probably get myself one, but not until I’ve mended the cement on the pathway in the marae and sealed the cemetery.”
He wasn’t planning any lavish holidays.
“Val and I talked about that, if we wanted to go anywhere, but we decided we have everything we need right here in Tauranga. But I have always wanted to go to the Melbourne Cup so I thought we could go, not this year as I am too busy at the marae, but maybe next year.”
As for indulgences, Te Keeti says he has few.
“I used to play golf and made many dear friends there but I gave it up in 2008 as I had too many responsibilities to take care of at the marae. But one thing Val and I have always been keen on doing is to breed thoroughbreds. It is a passion that brings us together so we will do that.”
Te Keeti says he has already organised his winnings so that his family are looked after.
For the mokopuna, he wanted not just to give them funds, but to teach them values of using them so he has set up a development fund in which they each have a 10 per cent share, and he has the rest. The fund will be used to “accumulate wealth to secure not only their future but give them the philosophies to secure the future of their own generations to come”.
Te Keeti said he wanted to help people on the marae and had taken out some of the people for a little celebration of the win.
“It wasn’t a feast of thousands. We just went down the road to the local, The Orchard at Bethlehem Town Centre. Good Kiwi meal.”
He also wanted to give some money to local charities and has put money aside to give $ 100,000 each to Waipuna Hospice, the local Heart Foundation, and a local diabetes charity.
“These are areas that keep coming up in statistics for Maori and I want to contribute to the good work they do.”
Today Te Keeti has some yard work to do in the marae. Then a shower, a bite to eat in his local with Val.
“And I said to her for a treat we would go for a drive. In the old car.”