The Powerball regular had no idea he had won until checking his ticket at New World St Martins on Sunday morning.
“I went to the New World to grab myself a coffee and thought I’d check my ticket while I was there,” he said.
“I held it under the ticket checker and ‘division one winner’ popped up on the screen.
“I had a bit of a mild panic at that point and lots of questions popped into my mind – the main one being ‘is this the big prize?’”
The man whispered to the Lotto operator he thought he’d won division 1 and asked them to check his ticket from the Saturday night draw.
“They confirmed I’d won $5.5 million, and my legs felt like jelly,” he laughed.
His ticket was one of two which shared the $10m Powerball jackpot and $1m division 1 prize. The other ticket was bought in Dunedin.
After filling out the paperwork, the man called his family and a close friend to share the news.
“They were ecstatic for me – probably more excited than I was!”
While he hasn’t had time to celebrate his win properly yet, he did shout a few friends lunch and spent the rest of the day dreaming about what to do with his win.
“I couldn’t sleep and had lots running through my mind – you start imagining the holiday home, the overseas trips,” he said.
“I am going to wait a while before I make any decisions though. I want to make sure this money works for mine and my family’s future.”
