A woman from Lower Hutt who won $1 million from a bonus ticket has become the 30th millionaire of 2025.
The MyLotto player “couldn’t believe her eyes” on Sunday morning after receiving an email from Lotto NZ informing her of what she had won.
“My first thought was ‘this can’t be real’, you don’t want to get your hopes up because you never expect things like this to happen to you,” said the woman, who wanted to remain anonymous.
She had to ask a family member to double-check for her and said she “wasn’t sure what I was seeing was correct”.
“When she realised I had won a $1 million, she was so excited and started congratulating me, but I was still in disbelief, I just couldn’t believe I’d won it… and on a bonus ticket too.”
The woman has been letting the news sink in and wants to use her winnings to invest in her future.
“This win is security for me and my children and means I can rest easy.
“Nothing is going to change in my life right now – though I might start splurging on coffees from the café instead of settling for instant.”
The winning Lotto First Division ticket was sold on MyLotto for the draw on Saturday, July 12.
This year there have been 12 Powerball multi-millionaires, 12 Lotto millionaires, four Strike millionaires and two Instant Kiwi millionaires.