Wayne McDonald, of Ashburton, was at Countdown intending to buy milk when he saw a deal on Tim Tam cookies.
In true Sunday style, Wayne forgot what he was originally shopping for, so he left the supermarket with two packs of chocolate chip cookies.
Two days later, he opened one of the packages, only to discover that the chocolate coating was golden.
Thinking they were inedible, a disappointed Wayne took the cookies to his partner, Rose, to see what she thought.
“She opened the package and there’s something wrong with them,” Wayne said.
After reading the promotional material on the package and discovering the accompanying gold ticket, Rose asked Wayne if he’d kept his receipt, assuming the odd-looking Tim Tam cookies might be a ghost in disguise.
And indeed they were.
Each year, cookie mogul Arnott’s distributes three packs of gold Tim Tam cookies across Australia and New Zealand, promising to grant three wishes worth up to $100,000 to anyone who buys and discovers one of the packs during the campaign period.
“To be honest, I knew nothing about it,” Wayne said of the Wishes campaign.
Wayne is the only person to have discovered the golden Tim Tam biscuits in this year’s Australasia campaign, and the second person from the South Island to have ever won; a family from North Canterbury discovered a pack of gold or gold Tim Tam biscuits in 2019.
“It’s very humiliating,” Wayne said.
“We sat there in shock for about five minutes after we found out we had won.”
A mechanic welder by trade, Wayne was out of work for 12 years after suffering a spinal cord injury, and has only recently returned to work.
He’s already planned out what he’d like to do with his three wishes, claiming he’s going to buy four used Harley Davidson motorcycles and a new car and put whatever’s left in savings.
Wayne and Rose don’t plan on tasting the golden Tim Tam cookies, despite the paint being perfectly edible.
Instead, they plan to find a way to preserve the cookies before coating them in epoxy resin, where they will remain golden and glittery for years to come.
Arnott’s brand manager, Michelle Kitchen, said the love Kiwis had for Tim Tam cookies, New Zealanders enjoyed more than 65 million last year!
“We were delighted to hear that Wayne discovered one of Tim Tam’s three gold packs in Ashburton and we hope he enjoys his $100,000 prize. What else do you want?
The campaign ended on July 4, with Wayne remaining the sole award winner.
-By Indi Roberts