So what did you decide on Wibbly?

At present I think I am going to go looking for a lens and see how I get on with that.

The general consensus appears to be that I should be able to produce plenty good enough work with the D70 and so its the quality of the lenses that is most important.

If at the end of the day I want to upgrade the body down the road at least I should have glass good enough to utilise.

I'm off to the States in a couple of weeks so I may have a look whilst I'm there. I quite fancy a 10-20mm wide angle lens for urban and landscape images, I've seen quite a lot recently and love the results you can get at these widths

Sounds like a plan

Yup, I'm that planned I was even considering hiring one for the duration of my time there to see how I got on with it

Hiring sounds like a good option. Then you can see if you can get the kind of results you are after.
Does it work out very expensive to hire?

Check 'em out here mate, looks pretty reasonable, depending on the type of lens you're going for, but based on the glass price I guess it could work out a reasonable price compared to buying one and making a big mistake if you're unsure!