Arieh here. The colours here are SO boring--every shade of green you can imagine and no brown at all! If I see any brown it is a roadway cut through a hill and that's almost or about to be overgrown with vegetation--green, of course. All sorts of hardwood trees--many of which I have no idea what they are called. We did see a freshly-cut Mahogany tree. It was being used for building a shed. (In North America Mahogany is only used for furniture, interior work or on sailing vessels--it is very expensive wood.) On the largest island of Viti Levu we saw Coconut and Date Palm trees. Other than looking at the top, can also see the difference in the bark. Interestingly, we have not seen Date Palm trees on the other two large island of Vanua Levu and Taveuni. The Palm trees do sway in the wind just like in the movies. In California, drier upper branches of the Giant Redwoods sometimes fall straight down at a high velocity. The loggers called them "widow makers". In Fiji, one just needs to watch for falling coconuts and Palm fronds (branches). We have yet to hear of any fatalities.
Yesterday, on the way from Suva back to Nadi, we stopped at Sigatoka to see the Sigatoka Sand Dunes park. These are on the south coast (Coral Coast) of Viti Levu. This area is recepient of strong S.E. Trade winds blowing from....the South East. The beach here is black sand, so called because it is created from iron. Not chunks of iron, but rather earth with iron in it that is swept out to sea by rainwater wearing down the nearby hills. These deposits are then further worn down by the sea and eventually get thrown back to land as "black" sand (White sand beaches are from Sandstone). The thing with black sand beaches is that they get really, really hot to sit or walk on (because of the iron heating up), So.... there is a nice trail around the Sigatoka Sand Dunes and part of it goes up a sand dune, a relatively short, but steep sand dune. (picture) We did start on the walk together. However, it was about 2PM and hot. Val decided to go back through the Mahogany forest grove (planted in the 1960s to stabilize the sand dunes (picture).
I was going on for another 30 minute walk. She made the right choice a the base of this sand dune. I looked at it and decided that walking up in my Mephisto sandals (Ron White, take note) was not going to cut it. I removed them (chalutzti na'alieem) and preceded to run up. Unfortunately I got only 1/2 way up and the heat on my feet was too much. Down I ran to the path with grass and sandals back on. I then stood there for a little while trying to come up with an intelligent solution. The view was great and the dune was "shorter than it looked" (according to the trail guide). Perhaps put water on my feet and try running again? No. Perhaps go back? No. Perhaps run on the sparse vegetation on the side? Prickly looking. Solution, Taurus that I am?? I ran again! Made it up and quickly put my sandals back on--was that hot or what? The remainder of the 30-minute walk was beautiful and fairly "uneventful". 1/2 of it was spent trudging on compacted, but still hot sand and 1/2 in the forest grove. Yes, I would do it again--perhaps with closed shoes. 
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