He also used to own a restored old stone cottage McConnachies in the Moke Valley, behind Queenstown, where he shot tele-movie A Woman of Good Character in the early ’80s.
Grahame, who with brother Terry tried to bust open the Milford Track for freedom walkers, only for concessionaire Tourist Hotel Corporation to call in the cops, moved to Queenstown in 1969 to take over one of the resort’s three restaurants, Carroll’s, in Beach St.
He bought the 100-year-old former town hall in the then-new Mall from ex-mayor George Cochrane, who’d used it as a movie theatre with an opening roof.
He stripped it back to its original stone and brick, brought back its balcony and veranda and opened it as Wakatipu Trading Post, with 13 boutique shops, in 1973.
One tenant was Terry, who with his wife Erina opened the very successful Staircase Fashions, and another was Christchurch hairdresser and later mayor, David Bradford.
"I brought potters and weavers into town and gave a reason for people to stay more than 24 hours," he said.
Between times Grahame produced the first independently-made drama series shown on New Zealand TV, The Games Affair.
He later had production roles in TV goldrush drama Hunter’s Gold, shot around Queenstown, Roger Donaldson’s Sleeping Dogs, Beyond Reasonable Doubt and Sons for the Return Home which was shot in Samoa.
Betraying his trademark hard work and wry humour, he stated: "Somebody asked me why I worked in the film industry and I said ‘because I couldn’t think of anything harder to do’."
Grahame gave breaks to the likes of scriptwriter Fran Walsh — who married director Sir Peter Jackson — and, in Queenstown, screen industry entrepreneurs-to-be Barbara Williams and Brett Mills.
He also bought historic Eureka House, in The Mall, which was formerly staff housing for nearby Eichardt’s, and restored it, too, bringing down chef Chico Lanz, from Mount Cook, to open what later became Chico’s Bar & Grill.
He even took over the former Veint’s butcher shop across The Mall, converting it to a steak bar and deli downstairs, though a planned upstairs cinema didn’t go ahead.
Grahame later bought historic Arthurs Point Hotel, operating NZ’s first outdoor dining before the council dug up the landscaping, causing him to leave town in the early ’80s.
He’d return to visit his old haunts and stay in McConnachies for months at a time, and 10 years later still called Queenstown ‘home’.
In ’94, he told Mountain Scene NZ had an indigenous architecture.
"It’s important we do all we can to encourage it.
"The traditional look is never out of fashion, whereas modern-look styles date."
