Someone has spent their Sunday morning coming to terms with the fact they are $25 million richer.
Last night's Lotto jackpot, worth $26,264,932, was won by one lucky person - the third largest lottery prize to be won by a single ticket.
The ticket was sold in Te Kauwhata and a Lotto spokeswoman this afternoon said they had been contacted by someone believing they were the winner.
However, this could not be confirmed until they checked their ticket at a store or went to Wellington and had the ticket checked at head office.
The winner checked their ticket this morning and found out they were the winner, she said.
The ticket was sold at Te Kauwhata's Four Square and shop owner Jesal Patel said he was "very, very excited'' to have sold the winning ticket.
"My whole family who run the shop are ecstatic. We have had a very lucky year. We already sold a First Division ticket this year and an Instant Kiwi win of $10,000. I hope it was someone local but we tend to get a lot of people passing through. We are only a small town of 1200 but we have high Lotto sales,'' he said.
The prize is made up of $333,333 from Lotto First Division, and $26,264,932 million from Powerball First Division.
About two million tickets were sold this week, raking in $18m, an 80 per cent increase on a normal week.
