The 23-year-old was lifted to stardom last year after he and his university friends organised the student army of volunteers after the February earthquake "I surround myself with people who are good at things I'm not good at and it works a treat. I am so lucky to know such amazing people. Some of them love me, some of them hate me.
"It just sort of happened."
Since then, things have moved quick for Mr Johnson, and after being named Young New Zealander of the Year, he now has a personal agent in his younger sister Bridget Johnson.
Visiting Queenstown to promote National Leadership Week and another Christchurch fundraiser The Concert, Mr Johnson said it was refreshing to be in such an "energetic and vibrant" place.
"It's so great to come and visit Queenstown.
"The energy and vibrancy of the people down here, the students, there is a lot going on."
This was one huge contrast to the city he was passionate about, and the best thing the people of Queenstown/Otago could do was support Christchurch by actively visiting during its historic rebuilding process.
"Home is tough. Sharing a classroom, there's not much to do after school, you have lost your sports fields because it's full of portacoms. It's just draining.
"It's still a long road ahead and there's still a lot of people suffering. While the media has moved on, the news has moved on because it's not a selling story, but we're still battling.
"Keep your head to the ground and look for opportunities coming up. Share the responsibility.
"It's the single most greatest thing when a community shares the responsibility - it's what we do so well in New Zealand.
"Come and visit Christchurch, come and spend some time there. It's an amazing place to visit - it's first-class disaster tourism.
"Spend money there. It's a great place. Don't stop coming and visiting there."
With a blank canvas and $5 billion for its rebuilding process, Mr Johnson said Christchurch was one of New Zealand's most fascinating places.
"Come look at it now halfway on. Come see it as it's being rebuilt. There's no other city in the world getting this done."
Christchurch, he said, was probably not a place to live if you were wanting to move up the business ladder, but for those who thought outside the square, it was a great place to stamp a mark.
"Of course, it's mixed. Some people hate Christchurch.
"Some people would love to flee but they can't, and that's really sad.
"But on the whole, there's people there who are really committed and passionate about it."
His mission now was to keep the volunteers interested and to recruit new ones.
The newly announced "ministry of awesome", he said, was about the sharing of "awesome" ideas.
This non-profit group was not about him creating "awesome" ideas for the city; that was the job of the "awesomists" through their online website, ministryofawesome.com.
"One of our biggest lessons is we still have a lot of work to do.
"The first thing we face with Christchurch is to get businesses to create volunteer opportunities, to give people opportunities to serve.
"For me, it's watering the seeds of awesome.
"If someone has a great idea, they sometimes don't know how to implement it. Some can be really good at implementation, but they don't have the really good idea.
"Someone might have a lot of money, but don't know what to put it into that's awesome."
