The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, said he usually only bought a ticket when the jackpot was over $10 million.
However, on this occasion he had bought a multi-draw ticket when the jackpot was $23 million the draw before.
"With it being the lead up to Christmas, I thought I might forget my ticket, so I bought a couple of draws in advance.
"When I saw the $23 million had been won, I forgot all about the other tickets I still had," he said.
The man was checking his emails on Thursday afternoon when he saw one from MyLotto Customer Support.
"It said I’d won a prize and to fill in a Prize Claim Form, so I thought I’d better log in and have a look."
Although MyLotto played a virtual animation of the draw, the line the man won on wasn’t visible on the screen as it was further down his ticket.
"I filled in the Prize Claim Form – not even knowing how much we’d won and remember thinking to myself ‘maybe we’ve won Second Division, sweet as!’
"Afterwards I looked at the ticket and was so shocked to see we’d won Powerball."
Not quite believing it, he called MyLotto customer support to check.
"They confirmed I had won, so I asked them to tell me how much. They said, 'you’ve won five million dollars'.
"I was shaking, and I wanted my wife to hear it too, so I put them on speakerphone and asked them to repeat it. ‘Congratulations, we confirm you’ve won five million dollars.’
"We both burst into tears and spent the rest of the day either dancing or crying," laughed the man.
"The rest of the day and night is one big, amazing blur, I don’t even remember checking my ticket, so the next day I logged in and saw you could replay the draw – it was brilliant.
"I watched the numbers circle one by one, and I was so excited, even though I already knew we’d won."
With the prize hitting their account late last week, the win finally feels real for the family.
"There’s a lot of zeroes there," he laughed.
"The mortgage has been paid off, and that feels amazing. We’re looking at setting up some investments for us, and for our kid’s futures, and we’ve kept a little aside for a special South Island trip which we hope to take very soon.
"This is absolutely life-changing for us. It’s been a tough year and now we feel like we can breathe."
