But now the dog days are over for Johnston who not only met a girl in 2018 - MAC makeup artist and actress and singer, Tiffany Wilkinson - but also decided quickly she was "the one" and got down on one knee in a romantic proposal on New Year's Day 2020 while on holiday in Lake Karapiro.
"I had been trying to get her to the Lake to watch the sunset but she said it was too cold. So then I asked her to come to the window to watch the sunset, but she said she was too short to see it and she went back to sit by the platter we had made.
"I am so tall, and she is short and was sitting down, so I wasn't so much on one knee, more hunched with my leg tucked under me like a Karapiro Golum. As I started to take a knee, she said 'what ... is happening right now?', and then started to cry, so it took me so long to get the courage up to get the ring out, my legs went numb," Johnston said.
When she said "yes", Drax Project and Six60's song Catching Feelings came on, while Johnston struggled to his feet.
When he tells the story Wilkinson laughs hard. It was Johnston's sense of humour that she first fell for she says.
"You mean not my good looks?" he asks.
She laughs again.
Johnston meanwhile fell for Wilkinson's positive vibes.
"I just love her energy."
Although they had known each other for many years, their romance started just over a year ago when they bumped into each other at Astrolabe Brew Bar and stayed talking until the early hours.
"About everything really, our favourite foods." Wilkinson said.
"Oh surely more exciting than that?" Johnston said.
Johnston admits he was quickly "into it", experiencing "a Para rubber pool of feelings" like he had never felt before.
Wilkinson too was overwhelmed by the connection she felt, telling Johnston after a week that she was "catching feelings" too hard and they should take a break, Will and Kate style.
That only lasted two days - Johnston found himself beating his credit card in Bayfair, throwing money at clothes, but then he called Wilkinson saying he was done with the shopping therapy and was coming over.
A short while after, Wilkinson officially asked him to be her boyfriend in Tairua, Coromandel - again the couple remember the moment with a Six60 covers band playing across the water.
A holiday together in Bali (where they saw Frost sing) brought the couple even closer together. Not over sunsets and Six60 but when Wilkinson found herself on hands and knees with Bali belly. She was so bad they didn't want to let her on the flight, so she pretended she was pregnant - the couple kept the piece of paper the Bali officer wrote, confirming her "pregnancy".
As well as their shared sense of humour the couple, appreciate each others' busy lifestyles.
A makeup artist by day, Wilkinson takes to the stage at night, currently starring in a
Shakespeare production and starred as Glinda the Good in Wicked last year while Johnston keeps busy on air, at events or as a celebrant. The couple sometimes have to schedule dates together.
There are no bad habits that get on each others nerves although Wilkinson notes that Johnston does take a long time in the bathroom.
Johnston quips back, "Well you occasionally snore and I have seen dribble on our pillow ... it may be mine but it is probably yours.
"But it was when I woke up on New Year's Day and looked across at her still asleep, I decided I wanted to see that dribble on the pillow for the rest of my life."
Cue Six60.
