Yesterday, just minutes before greeting guests for his first commercial function - a group of motoring writers - the man behind the Canyon Restaurant was still unwrapping bar stools and arranging tables.
''It's been quite a journey; a lot of tradesmen and expense - more than I anticipated,'' he said.
Mr Johnston said it was ''easy to get a little bit down with all the costs'' but his dream had not changed.
''It's still the same vision I had at the start and getting more exciting.''
Mr Johnston's restaurant is high in the Bendigo hills between Cromwell and Tarras on the edge of the precipitous canyon containing School Creek.
The building was originally the Big Picture wine-tasting venue at Cromwell and then the Nose Restaurant at the Highlands Motorsport Park.
Two years ago, while having a coffee there, Mr Johnston learned it was to be demolished.
''At that moment I hatched a plan, before I got to the end of the cup of coffee,'' he said
He bought the building and had it trucked up the gravel road through his vineyard to a hilltop site with views towards the Pisa Range.
''It's awesome to finally see it come together,'' he said.
Mr Johnston, a former Dunedin accountant, plans to use the venue for weddings, corporate events and as a ''pop-up'' restaurant for celebrity chefs.