A Christchurch woman was left light-headed after discovering the Lotto ticket she had been carrying around was worth $1 million.

The regular Lotto player had stopped at a local store last Wednesday to check her ticket when the terminal displayed a message telling her she had won a major prize.

“I hadn’t heard that anyone had won in Christchurch, so it came as a bit of a shock,” she said.

Unsure how much she had won, the woman asked a staff member to check the result.

“She slid the receipt across to show me that it was $1 million.

“There was no doubting there were six zeroes there, but it took a while to compute.”

Still trying to process the life-changing news, she called her husband, who was at work, and told him she needed to see him immediately.

“I told him I needed to see him straight away, but not to worry, and that everything was okay,” she said.

The couple quickly arranged to meet, but the woman struggled to explain what had happened.

“I told him I was light-headed and in a bit of shock,” she laughed.

“His face went completely white.”

Rather than trying to explain the win, she handed him the prize receipt.

“I didn’t really process what I was looking at,” her husband said.

“When I saw it was a prize, I actually thought it said $1,000.”

His wife urged him to look again.

“That’s when it clicked,” he laughed.

“It wasn’t a thousand dollars, it was a million. All I could say was, ‘Oh my goodness.’

“Then I had to go back to work and act like everything was completely normal. That was hard.”

The couple spent the evening discussing the win and considering how it could change their future.

“It still feels unreal,” the woman said.

“I think it’s going to take some time before it fully sinks in. We’re going to take some time to think about what to do with it.”

The winning Lotto First Division ticket was sold at New World Ilam for the draw on Wednesday, 8 July 2026.

The couple have chosen to remain anonymous and do not wish to comment further at this stage.