Maui 2023

About a month earlier, I read reports that the water in Keālia Pond, a coastal salt marsh, suddenly turned pink because halobacteria - which thrive in extreme saline conditions - multiplied in the pond due to drought conditions. I was intrigued and so I made a mental note to check out the pond if I had an opportunity to visit Maui.

After our aborted attempt to visit the beach at Kāʻanapali, we drove east to the pond to observe this phenomenon. After we parked our rental car, we walked along the boardwalk until we reached the pond itself. We saw that the water was indeed pink, but it appeared to have turned a darker shade of pink since the phenomenon was first observed; according to our local friends, the water was apparently the same shade as pepto-bismol at the beginning. When I saw the shape and shade of the pond, my mind immediately associated it with the album cover for Simple Minds' 1979 album Life in a Day. Apart from viewing the oddly hued water, we enjoyed walking along the boardwalk.Read more