Nelson's lottery luck still on a roll

If good luck truly does come in threes, Nelson should not expect too much more from Lotto for a while.

Hot on the heels of a Stoke woman winning $4 million in Powerball, the Milton Street Store has sold a first-division ticket worth $500,000 and Nelson minister Misinale Tokelau won a $100,000 home upgrade on Saturday night's live draw.

Mr Tokelau said the Winning Wheel win came at the right time for him and his family because they were about $4000 behind in the mortgage repayments on a home they owned in Auckland. "We appreciate [it] and we are surprised."

He said they had been living in Vanguard St for about four years in a home belonging to the Free Church of Tonga which he works for voluntarily.

Milton Street Store part owner Mark Kane said the store had not sold a first-division ticket since the $6.9 million powerball winner in 2006. Saturday's winner had not yet come forward, he said. "I imagine they don't know or they do know and have maybe gone somewhere else."

The first division prize was shared with the owner of another ticket sold on Auckland's North Shore.

- © Fairfax NZ News