I wake up at 3.00AM. Not because I’m not tired, but because there is a giant panda bear snoring in the bed below mine. Actually it’s a very friendly little Asian guy, but he makes so much noise. I try to get back to sleep but I can’t, so I go to the living room to lay on a couch. There are a Dutch guy and an American girl in the living room, just back from going out. We talk for a while and then they go to bed. I can’t fall asleep anymore and listen to some music.

As a nice surprise the clock is put one hour forward this night, so in a blink of a second it’s 04.00am and then 05.00am. Almost a decent time to get up. I do my workout, have a shower and make myself a good breakfast. A little later more people come in the living room, getting ready for work. Most people here are staying for a long time and therefore are also working. So far since yesterday I’ve met people from America, England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, Canada and some French speaking people of which I don’t know exactly where they’re from. It’s a nice international group and people are very friendly. One guy makes me some delicious coffee and we hang out in the living room for a while. Then people go to their work and I go to Starbucks to do some work myself as well.

Queenstown is really a small town, not a city at all. It’s just a couple of streets next to a big lake and feels like a backpackers town. Most of the people on the street look like tourists and backpackers. I’m happy to see the Starbucks at only eight minutes walking from the hostel and I expect to find myself spending quite some time here in the coming days. I work for a couple of hours and then take a break to have lunch and walk downtown. Except for tourist shops, bars and restaurants and extreme sports there is not so much to do here actually, so I walk back to the hostel and continue working there until dinner time. Then I feel like I’ve done enough work for today.

I hang out with the people in the hostel for a while. The guy that manages this place is also a very good musician and he plays his guitar in the living room. I make myself some pasta again, that’s the one of the nice things of making Italian food: there is always enough for at least two days. I go to bed early to make sure I’ll get some sleep tonight.