Bad news this morning. The guy from Equinox phoned to say that the company had decided to pitch their hopes and future on a spotty, pimple headed, rushing around like a bull in a china shop, head full of theory with no practical skills youngster straight out of university. Obviously, I’m not at all bitter and wish them well…..

Spent most of the day filling out application forms again from jobs I’d found yesterday and today. It’s only been 2 months, NZ still thinks its in a recession despite what the government is trying to voice and the unemployment rate is the highest its been for about 3 decades. However, I’ll get there!! Chin up old bean, plenty of fish in the sea and all that……..

Out again this evening to the cashpoint for the last installment for the bike tomorrow. It’ll be nice to be back on two wheels again. It still seems to make more sense to buy one and take the risk of having to sell it at a slight loss than to hire one – the lowest price I’ve seen for bike hire here (and there isn’t anywhere in Wellington, you’d have to go to Nelson, Christchurch or Auckland) is $150 a day. So a quick calculation for the run of the visa would be a cost of about $40,000 or £18,000!! It’s not even worth thinking about!!! Compared to the £7.20 a day for the car, it’s an absolute rip-off!! Mind you, we did do well in finding such a good rental cost for the car….