Fate brought the owners to this 70s-inspired ocean-view home

To hear Bay of Plenty restaurateur Kim Smythe tell it, she and husband Noel Cimadon, were destined to live in the waterfront home at 92 Myres Street, in Otumoetai, Tauranga.

The owners of Alpino, Picknicka, Stazano and The Clarence were living in "a very retro" 1970s flat roof Lockwood bungalow in Cambridge, when Smythe spotted the house in Uno magazine. It was love at first sight.

"I just loved the feel of that house. It was so cool," she says.

The couple had just opened The Clarence in Tauranga, and were “driving back and forth over the Kaimais” between their businesses. Although Smythe felt “very rooted” in Cambridge, where she was born and raised, Noel was keen to move closer to their new venture.

“I said, 'Oh, I'll move to Tauranga when I can have that house'. We were just laughing about it."

Not long after, however, Smythe met the home’s owner, artist Mandy Williams. She invited the couple over. "I walked in the door and I said, ‘Oh, my goodness, what are you doing living in my house?’."

When Mandy popped into the restaurant a few months later to say they were putting the house on the market, “it was just crackerjack”.

“I believe you can create your own reality in life, and it was just one of these beautiful, serendipitous moments,” she says. “Boom, we got into discussions, and we ended up at beautiful 92 Myers Street. It was just meant to be, and it was a very easy shoe to slip into.”

The home even had Tauranga Hospo lineage: it was built by Astrolabe Brewbar owner Paul Ryan.

On top of that, it was close to town, but didn’t feel like it; close to the restaurant precinct, but with sea views, a pool and privacy. There's "a beautiful sort of solitude" there.

“It's not a cookie cutter sort of home,” says Smythe.

“It's very seldom I see houses built today and just admire the structure and how it feels so rooted and belonging on that beautiful point of land. It’s so solid. You just feel, ‘I’ve landed’.”

It’s not just the home itself that gives that feeling, but the location too, captured like pieces of art through monumentally large picture widows throughout the house.

“We would argue over who's getting the coffee as we sit there watching the tide change.

“The beautiful thing about living there is that you've got all these tidal patterns over the the wetlands down there, so it always looks different. You've always got these different shapes in the sand.”

Beyond the obvious retro influences - the conversation pit with its orange velvet wraparound seating, the vintage Axminster carpet, the warm, natural timber beams and panelling next to functional concrete breeze blocks - the home feels timeless.

The influences of architects Frank Lloyd Wright and Mies van der Rohe, are there, but subtle. This isn’t a pastiche of Mid-century design, more of a homage.

Smythe says you could “tone it down” by swapping the orange velvet out for some natural leather, go for the Scandi look, but that wasn’t her style.

“I love a bit of colour. This is just an ode to my travels. It was a perfect show space for my bits and bobs that I gathered over the years and years of travelling."

Even the Slim Aarons print on the wall, Pool Side Gossip, is a testament to how destined Smythe was to own this space. She’d bought it at a trade show more than a year before she bought the house. It had been in storage because “you need a serious sized wall for that sort of thing”.

“Then we ended up with that beautiful house. And I was like, 'oh my goodness, look, this is where she's meant to be'. This is just absolutely creating your reality.”

Now, however, the couple’s focus has shifted again - to a 5 hectare lifestyle block in Cambridge.

In their early days in hospitality, Smythe would grow all the herbs and cherry tomatoes they used in their restaurant, and dahlias - a gift from her grandmother - for the dining tables. She plans to get back to that.

It’s going to be hard for Smythe to leave the house and the community around it behind - “Myers street won a ‘best street in New Zealand’ competition about six months ago!” - but she says it’s time.

“I want my kids to spend more time outside. I want to spend more time outside.

“I think it means a lot these days. Life's got faster. So it's nice to have the privilege of putting a bit of the romance [back], being able to grow things and bring them in fresh. That's the dream."

She can’t imagine who the next owner of the home will be, but she know’s they will be “a very privileged person” to get to live in such a home.

"Look at all the artists that have been through there. You feel a little bit regal living up there, I have to say. I just know that everybody that walked in the door was like, 'Oh my gosh, look at your house. This is amazing'."

The three-bed, two-bath home, which sits on a 1563m² waterfront section, is for sale by auction, which kicks off on December 10 at 1pm. The property has a May 2023 CV of $2.3m, which is unlikely to reflect the market value of the home.

The listing is with Gregers Andersen for Bayleys.