A single focus on rowing or otherwise was never on his agenda.
"You never know when your time's up. It can be finite. Injury, loss of form, loss of motivation. So you never know when it could strike."
A recipient of the Prime Minister's Scholarship, Bond appreciated the injection of resources that hasn't saddled him with a hefty student loan.
"You could be 30 years old and potentially be in the same position as a high school leaver so to be able to leave your sport to have something to fall back on is quite important."
He was always aware he couldn't retire from rowing.
"We're just playing games, aren't we? It's not forever."
New Zealand has a level of Olympic consciousness which poses a challenge to prepare every four years.
No doubt, he and Eric Murray have enjoyed a spin-off since winning Olympic gold.
Although Bond beat Mahe Drysdale in January in Cambridge he has no intentions of following the path of the Olympic and five-time world champion single sculler right now.
"We'd like to see how far we can go in the pairs -- not let it run its course -- to play this one out."
It's human nature to want what you don't have so the allure of a single sculls title or a crew boat is forever present.
"Mahe is, arguably, the greatest single sculler of all time," Bond says, adding half a dozen countries will always have elite single scullers gunning for Drysdale's world's best time.
"His era has been the most competitive in singles scull's history," he says, relishing challenging Drysdale to get a variety in their training.
Different physically and in personality with Murray, Bond says respecting each other's abilities is the foundation of their partnership.
"You want to be doubting yourself before doubting your teammates," he says, revealing a bit of yin and yang provides that balance but the common denominator in all that is their competitiveness.
"The sum of our individual parts are greater than us as individuals."
