NomadGirl Travels

The Cave and Basin, in Banff, Alberta, Canada is the birthplace of Canada's National Parks. In the Autumn of 1883, three railway workers, working on the Canadian Pacific Railway, discovered a cave and thermal pool in the Canadian Rockies. The three men saw an opportunity to make some money and set out to find out how to get rights to develop the area. Over the next two years, surveyors came to have a look and eventually the Federal Government bought the land. The Rocky Mountain National Park was founded and people started coming west to visit the thermal spas. The Rocky Mountain National Park, later known as the Banff National Park, is the first and oldest National Park in Canada; the third in the world after Yellowstone National Park in the USA, and the Royal National Park in Australia. The cave and thermal pool that was discovered in the Canadian Rockies eventually became known as the Cave and Basin. It is located within walking distance of Banff town centre or the Banff Spri

After a year of traveling in the South Pacific, in April 2011, I was ready to come home. I had just over a week of travel still ahead of me when I left for the airport in Auckland, New Zealand on April 1, 2011. The fun was just about to begin... I had rebooked my trip home back in January, changing my dates with Air Pacific over the phone. They sent an email with an itinerary showing the dates and flights of my trip. I thought I was good to go. I arrived at the Auckland International Airport at around 11:45AM. I got in line to check in and the wait began. Finally I got up to the ticket counter. The girl was checking my piece of paper and a puzzled frown formed on her forehead. She called her supervisor over. She too looked puzzled. Finally the supervisor said to me that I just had an itinerary, not a ticket number. I needed a ticket number in order to get on every flight on my journey home! My itinerary was: Auckland, New Zealand to Nadi, Fiji that day. Then after eight days, Nadi,