I have friends still in mauntown and a bunch that have recently left for other parts of africa to gain further experience, some focusing on getting twin time, others utilising their Van ratings and getting decent paid contract work.
follow in their footsteps, use your connections to move on.
Before this credit crunch happened there was 2 'fun' routes to pursue that didnt include pursuing the airline gig just yet.
1) If you were on the islander (when I was there only 4 outfits still used them) then you could go to Caribbean and enjoy the beach life.
2) Go to Indo on the Van.
Main way to go though was to head north and put your Van rating to use doing contract flying. Hard work but paid well (especially considering how the terms are deteriorating in current climate)
OR
as others have said, stay where you are and save some coin. Buy Tassies instead of Pinot and try not to visit a different bar each night
yeah right!
I left just over 2 years ago and there are still about a dozen pilots I trained/worked with still there when the norm is to leave after 2 years. So you are not alone in hanging in there for better times to come.