Coober Pedy + Opals.

It's not hard to go "down-unda" in Coober Pedy, Australia. The old mining settlement gets so sweltering hot in the summer most homes are in fact, underground. "Kupa piti," the original name, is roughly translated to "white man's hole in the ground."

I would love to see these burrows in person, which are not dark and cramped, like I first imagined. Instead they are said to have rose-colored walls from the sand-stone and most include a lounge.

The Coober Pedy geography is very different from what we New Englander's know. It is a treeless desert, with little plant life and hardly any rain, thus making the cost of water high. Check out that landscape:

So while it may not be raining water in Coober Pedy, it is raining opals. OK, that's an exaggeration, but the area does produce the most white opal in the world (95% of Opals come from Australia).

And did you know Opals, when wrapped in a fresh bay leaf, were once believed to bestow the power of invisibility? Maybe we'll give it a whirl.