A North Canterbury couple who joked they had “never won more than a meat pack” are celebrating a $1 million Lotto First Division win.

The couple, who wish to remain anonymous, won the prize with a MyLotto ticket in Saturday night’s draw.

They said they were stunned after checking the ticket on a phone.

The couple play only occasionally, using a mix of their own numbers and randomly generated lines. This time, one of the random lines won the prize.

The woman said she was checking the ticket when she realised they had matched five numbers.

“I turned to my partner and said, ‘Look, we’ve got five numbers, how good!’”

As she showed him the screen, the sixth number circled.

“He looked awfully stunned and said, ‘you’ve just won Lotto.’

“I thought he was having me on, he loves a joke. But when I turned my phone back around and saw it, I couldn’t believe it,” she said.

Over the weekend, the woman saw headlines reporting a Cantabrian had won $1 million.

“It’s hard to keep it quiet when I want to shout from the rooftops: ‘it’s me, I’m the Cantabrian in the news.’”

“I keep playing it over and over and I just can’t believe that’s me, out of all of New Zealand, it’s amazing.”

The couple said the money would help their family.

“We’ll be helping our children out with their new homes, and the rest we’ll invest for our retirement,” the woman said.

The winning Lotto First Division ticket was sold on MyLotto for the draw on Saturday 20 June 2026.

The win follows another major Canterbury Lotto prize earlier this month, when an Ashburton family won $28.6 million.