Carterton Mayor Ron Mark congratulates lucky local punter who ...

Carterton Mayor Ron Mark congratulates lucky local punter who bagged $30m Lotto prize.

Carterton Mayor Ron Mark says “congratulations and good on them” to the person or family who won last night’s Lotto jackpot and took home a whopping $30 million.

“We all make our donations to charity through the Lotto till and it’s just nice to know someone locally has won,” Mark said this morning.

The largest jackpot of 2024 was won in the small Wairarapa town, 15km south of Masterton.

The prize comprised $30 million from Powerball First Division and $166,667 from Lotto First Division.

Five others shared Lotto First Division, pocketing $166,667.

“The comments I’m getting on my text messages and what I have seen on social media is pretty much people are happy for them, and congratulating them.

“I even had one friend of mine say ‘they will able to afford to pay your rates’,” said Mark, a former soldier, NZ First MP, Minister of Defence, and in his second stint as Mayor of Carterton.

Mark said the win would be a good thing for Carterton and the Wairarapa but asked people to be mindful of putting pressure on whoever won the big prize.

The Carterton district, population 10,500, is a friendly township where people out walking say “good morning, how are you” and has amazing community groups, he said.

“Our local swimming club has been in existence for over 100 years, our rugby club over 100 years. We have two rugby clubs, Gladstone and Carterton that both regularly feature at the top of the tables. We have got an international standard hockey pitch that has held test matches.

“We have got the Wairarapa A & P Show Grounds, two Lions groups plus Rotary, a Keep Carterton Beautiful Group made up of people pretty much over 70 and up to their 90s…there’s a lot of community stuff that goes on here.

“People look after each other and when someone has a windfall like this people smile, give it the thumbs up and say ‘good on ‘em,” said Mark.

Last night’s win is the second mega win in the Wairarapa.

In 2009, a Masterton syndicate won a $36.9m Lotto jackpot, and one member, Margaret Heaney, and her family donated some of their winnings to the Wairarapa District Health Board for a new ambulance.

The syndicate split one $12 ticket and was named “Irish Luck” in honour of the Irish roots of Mrs Heaney’s late husband, John.

“Me and John used the ambulance a lot, it’s time to put something back into the service,” she said.

The ambulance was dubbed “the Shamrock” and sported two four-leaf clovers on its rear doors.

Heaney and her daughter Fiona Wilton also bought a complete set of new uniforms for ambulance staff, specifically designed to protect them in difficult circumstances. Their gift also enabled the purchase of state-of-the-art Stryker stretchers, extrication gear and other much-needed equipment.

A year after the win, Margaret Harvey died. Three years later the family donated a second ambulance worth about $250,000 to Wellington Free Ambulance on behalf of their late mother’s Leprechaun Trust. It was named Leprechaun.

The biggest Lotto win ever was struck in 2020 when $50m was split between 10 players.

The prize left the lucky punters from Lincoln Heights, Auckland, Tauranga, Napier, Palmerston North and Invercargill $5m richer.

A $50m jackpot was also struck in February of the same year and was shared by two Aucklanders.

One ticket was purchased by a punter online, while the second was purchased at Countdown Manukau City Mall.

The third largest win on the list is also the biggest prize to be won by a single ticket.

A young couple from Auckland’s Hibiscus Coast took home an eye-watering $44m in 2016 after purchasing the ticket at the Dairy Flat Food Mart.

Nishchal Pandya, who owns the Dairy Flat Food Mart and Liquor store where the ticket was sold as well as the one where the ticket was allegedly presented, said: “I just got a call from my other store, the prize has been claimed from there.”

Pandya said he was so excited when he found out about his shop’s first big win and hoped a local was the lucky winner.

A major prize by a single ticket was not struck again until October 2021 when a Pōkeno family became $ 42.1 million richer.

The family only realised Powerball had been struck when they read the news on Thursday morning.

“I didn’t know what to do next, I was sure I must be making some sort of mistake! I always imagined whooping and cheering if I won, but I have never been so calm in my life. I popped the ticket back in my wallet and waited for my husband to come inside from the garden,” the wife said.

When her husband arrived she jumped up to tell him they were now multimillionaires.

“I’d barely stepped inside when she raced over and blurted out ‘we’ve just won $42 million with Powerball’ – it took a second or two to get my head around what she had said,” he said.

January 27: $17.25 million – MyLotto, Canterbury

February 10: $8.3 million – MyLotto, Hawke’s Bay

March 2: $12.3 million – MyLotto, Otago