The winner, who wishes to remain anonymous, only plays occasionally and said a friend mentioned buying a ticket and thought “why not get one myself?”.
The winner checked the ticket in the MyLotto app on the night of the draw and watched as all the numbers started to line up.
“When there was a big winner, I thought it might be $10,000.”
Later that evening, the winner read in the news that a player from Queenstown had raised the $1 million.
'Then I thought: maybe that's me.
“I started wondering how many zeros are in a million and had to count them a few times to be sure,” the winner joked.
The winner said it took seeing the numbers line up a few times to really come to terms with it.
The winner's first thought was, “I can pay off my student loans!”
After a happy but sleepless night, the winner said they used the MyLotto app one last time the next morning to make sure it was real.
“A win like this doesn't happen often. I will take time to think about it and get financial advice on how to make the most of it.”