The New Year is off to a great start for a Wellington man who won $1 million with Lotto First Division over the weekend.

The winner, who wishes to remain anonymous, picked up his usual Lotto tickets on MyLotto on Saturday afternoon, never imagining just how life-changing that decision would end up being.

“I was at home on Saturday night when I read online that someone from Wellington had won First Division. I don’t know what it was, but I just had a strange feeling when I saw that– but then I thought, ‘calm down, it’s probably not me’,” explained the winner.

Nevertheless, the man got his partner and the couple sat down together to check his tickets on his phone using the Lotto NZ App.

“We sat there staring at my phone and realised pretty quickly that a whole row of numbers was circled off on one of my tickets,” said the winner.

“Just as things started to click together, a message popped up saying, ‘you’ve won a major prize’, which made me feel a bit breathless. I thought, ‘oh cool, maybe it’s a few thousand dollars or even Second Division!’

“But when I saw I’d won $1 million, I felt faint in that moment - in a good way!” laughed the man.

With the reality of the win fresh on their mind, the couple celebrated with a big hug before sharing the good news with the rest of their household.

“When we finally got to bed, both my partner and I had a pretty restless night – we could still hardly believe it and couldn’t stop thinking about how much our lives were about to change,” the winner said.

With the prize now claimed, the man is looking forward to getting a foot on the property ladder and setting himself up for the future.

“I plan to celebrate properly soon. And coincidentally, my birthday is coming up so I certainly have a lot to celebrate now!” said the winner.

The $1 million winning Lotto First Division ticket was sold on MyLotto for the draw on Saturday 15 January.

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