Saturday's New Zealand Powerball jackpot has been claimed by a couple who live in the Nelson area.
Lotto New Zealand's corporate communications adviser Kirsten Robinson confirmed the NZD$ 4.5 million prize has been claimed, but was unable to provide any further details about the lucky winners.
Kaye Wood, who manages the Countdown supermarket in Blenheim that sold the winning ticket, had a little more information to share and said the couple returned to the store on Sunday, August 17, to check their ticket.
"When they came in they thought they had only won NZD$ 500,000 so when you add NZD$ 4 million to that you can imagine they were pretty shocked when we validated it," Wood said. "It's really quite exciting."
News that the store had sold the winning ticket resulted in Sunday being an unusually hectic day for Wood and the other Countdown staff members as customers flocked to the store hoping to discover they'd bagged the big win.
"While they are validating their tickets they are talking about who has won . . . it's been very busy," Wood said. "It's got the whole town buzzing."
The big prize may have been claimed, but there's still plenty of excitement in Blenheim because the town's Pak 'n Save super market also sold a winning ticket and the winner of winner of Saturday's NZD$ 500,000 First Division Lotto prize has yet to come forward.
Andrea Boock, who co-owns the Pak 'n Save said there continues to be a lot of speculation about who winner might be.
"It's great to see a small town have two first division wins," she said.
