Feature article

Open Home must see: This 70s house is a literal TV star

Peek inside this 1970s time capsule on Auckland's North Shore.

Last updated: 25 August 2025 | 3 min read

If you’ve watched any telly in the last 25 years, you may recognise the funky, 1970-built home at 22 Park Rise, in Auckland’s Campbells Bay on the North Shore. Thanks to its untouched, Mid-century look, the home has played a role in a famously racy advert, as well as a steamy true-crime drama - it’s even got a little true-crime glam of its own.

The home belongs to retired former salon owners Tim and Cheryl Stratford, who are long-time fans of Mid-century style. The couple bought the home after attending an open home and listening to people talking about how much it would cost to get rid of the old wallpaper.

“I was there, stroking the wallpaper, going [swoon],” says Cheryl.

They reckon they were the only ones there who fell in love with the home for exactly what it was.

"What captivated us mostly was 180-degree view of the harbour,“ says Tim. ”It's such a suntrap."

Since then, they’ve done what they can to restore and maintain the home in its original state, op-shopping and bargain hunting Mid-century décor and furniture to complete the picture.

The decor has been mostly untouched since it was built in the 70s.

“We knew we could get away with putting it in the house.”

A long-time collector of vintage surfing paraphernalia, it was one of Tim’s 1960s surfboards that got the home its small-screen break. He had agreed to loan it to an advert production, and when the team came to pick it up, the house stole the show.

“The location scout took one look at the house and said, ‘Geez, I've got to take photos of this place.’,” says Tim. “It kind of just went from there.”

The home is packed with late 1960s and early 1970s objects and furniture, to match the original wallpaper and period accurate textiles.

The home first appeared in an Aussie chocolate bar commercial. Then came its big break as a backdrop for the rather racy Crack a Woody campaign, for the Woodstock alcohol brand, starring Outrageous Fortune’s Grant Bowler.

The “biggest one” shot at the house was Underbelly NZ: Land of the Long Green Cloud, a six-part drama about the Mr Asia story.

“They shot a lot of it here, because we have six rooms and they're quite different."

Grant Bowler in the “Crack a Woody” Woodstock campaign, which was shot in the kitchen of the Stratford’s unique home.

A bedroom with a brick interior wall became a Hamilton motel where one of the drug couriers came to a nasty end. The party room was the lounge. Often the production would use the Stratford’s furniture too, as it was period-appropriate.

The Startford’s funky 70s s decor is the ideal backdrop in this scene from Underbelly NZ: Land of the Long Green Cloud, starring Daniel Musgrove (above) as Marty Johnston, who was known as Mr Asia, and Edith Poor as Bonnie Marie Johnstone, his wife.

"I think they even borrowed a couple of my old surfboards because some of the early marijuana drops out in the harbour, they paddled out on surfboards to get it off the yacht that brought them in from Asia."

According to Tim, the home has its own slightly true-crime backstory: It was built for one of the directors of JBL, the Kiwi mini-conglomerate that made headlines when it tanked in the late 60s and took investors’ life savings with it, just as the company was about to go down.

“He didn’t own it for very long.”

The owners op-shopped and bargain hunted for period-appropriate décor.

Only the third owners of the home, it’s not time for them to pass it on to it’s next caretakers. The kids are grown up and the couple is downsizing.

"It's been a wonderful home to live in,“ Cheryl says. ”It’s got six bedrooms so it would suit a family.“

The couple would love to see the home go to someone who loves the style and period as much as they do. Their “worst fear” is that it will be demolished to make way for news homes. They are, however, pragmatic about the future.

This room doubled as a Hamilton motel in Underbelly NZ: Land of the Long Green Cloud.

“It's the reality of Auckland today,” Tims says.

Trade Me Property has shared several wonderful time capsule houses in the past, such as the beloved 70s family home in Titahi Bay that hadn’t been changed since it was built, or the 1950s weatherboard home in Miramar that was like stepping back in time.

One of the most popular was the award-winning Whanganui home of one of the country’s foremost mid-century architects, Don Wilson, which came back on the market in January, 2025. It sold in February for $1.2 million.