Hong Kong skyline at night from the Peak is quite the spectacular view.  But, you really need to have a panorama shot to even start to appreciate it.  Our stay in Hong Kong has been great and the Combined Congress of the APPOS and APSS was the perfect conclusion to our trip.  We have meet new friends and had an opportunity to catch up with old friends (from Australia and the SRS traveling fellows).  The amount of neglected cases that our colleagues in the Asia Pacific see is amazing and we believe it gives them a really unique perspective that lends itself to necessary creativity.  We are grateful for the opportunity to have undertaken this trip. To make new friends. To learn innovative concepts in pediatric orthopedics.  And to help bring the two societies closer together.  Thank you for reading our blog.

We arrived safely into Hong Kong, and then we hit the ground running.  We visited with both the faculty at Duchess of Kent Children's Hospital and the pediatric orthopedic surgeons at the Prince of Wales Hospital. Completing the day with a joint session that included the APPOS Visiting Professor Stuart Weinstein and POSNA member Ken Kuo.  After that latest round of academic exchange, we we were then treated to a traditional banquet dinner with roughly 9 courses (we admittedly lost count).  We agreed that the whelk (or sea conch) was perhaps our favorite dish, that the bird nest soup and the lion fish noodles were nice, but the duck tongue and sea cucumber were perhaps wasted on our Western palates (although most of us ate it).  In the end we were satisfied and appreciative of a lovely meal with our new friends.

The sea cucumber is on the bottom left juxtaposed by a shiitake mushroom and an abalone.

Today begins the APPOS combined meeting.  We will be engaged in a full day of free papers and lectures with plans to go to the 'peak' tonight, in order to catch a view of Victoria harbour and Hong Kong.

We departed ways with Haemish Crawford, but picked up our North Island local host Dawson Muir.  He treated us to some Maori culture in Rotorua before taking us up to Tauranga for our academic session with Bay of Plenty surgeons (and surrounding area).  The ladies learned how to dance with a Poi ball and Eric had to learn the Haka.  Although the geothermal springs that made the Rotorua area a cultural center for the Maori were fascinating, the natural beauty of the region was tainted slightly by the sulfurous fumes that filled the city.  Fortunately, the rain kept this issue mostly at bay and allowed us to concentrate on the many interesting cases that were presented by the local surgeons.  Our stay in New Zealand was wonderful and we are now looking forward to Hong Kong.

The three of us can not thank our local New Zealand host, Haemish Crawford, enough for his thoughtfulness and willingness to personally travel with us these last 3 days.  Having him has a Godfather has been tremendous, and his attitude towards us and the POSNA traveling fellowship defines the experience that we have had thus far in Australasia.  Each host and their colleagues have welcomed us without reservation and treated us in a manner befitting royalty. For this, we will always be indebted to them.  To close the chapter on the South Island, we are including some photos of today's sunrise and the glacial milk of the Dart River within the Mount Aspiring National Park.  After tonight's rest we will travel back to the North Island for a couple more academic sessions before heading to Hong Kong.

The natural beauty of Queenstown and the South Island of New Zealand is hard not to comment on and share with some aerial views from the plane.  But, despite the potential outdoor activities that we could be doing, we are committed to the academics of the traveling fellowship.  Here we are with the South Island Pediatric Orthopedic group sharing our lectures and learning some really innovative ways of treating scoliosis.  We really appreciate them driving 2.5 hours up from Dunedin to participate in our education, even though its a Saturday they could be spending at home.

We had a special treat at Westmead Children's today.  A scientific session, lab tour, and music serenade on the didgeridoo.

We have safely arrived in Auckland.  We had a fantastic stay in Melbourne visiting the Royal Children's.  Clearly the flagship of children's hospitals in Australasia.  We had some excellent academic sessions and were able to visit in the operating theatre to get a feel for spine surgery Down Under.  Our host Ian Torode even took us boating for the afternoon to finish off our trip to Australia.  The flight to New Zealand was uneventful, but the morning academic session was great and poignant.  This was then followed by a tour of the city that terminated with Amy and Eric jumping off a perfectly good building (the Skytower) in the middle of downtown. Crazy and yet exhilarating. Tomorrow we will spend time in clinic and the theatre at Starship and we are looking forward to it.