Shotover river, your gold is waning
And it's years since the colour I've seen
It's no use just sitting, lady-luck blaming
I'll pack up, then I'll make the break clean

Farewell to the gold that never I found
Goodbye to the nuggets that somewhere abound
For it's only when dreaming that I see you gleaming
Down in the dark deep underground

It's nearly two years since I left my old mother
For adventure and gold by the pound
And with Jimmy the prospector, he was another
And to the hills of Otago we were bound

Farewell to the gold that never I found
Goodbye to the nuggets that somewhere abound
For it's only when dreaming that I see you gleaming
Down in the dark deep underground

Well we worked the Cardrona's dry valley all over
Old Jimmy Williams and me,
They were panning good dirt on the winding Shotover
So we headed down there just to see

Farewell to the gold that never I found
Goodbye to the nuggets that somewhere abound
For it's only when dreaming that I see you gleaming
Down in the dark deep underground

Well we sluiced and we cradled for day after day
Making hardly enough to get by
Then a terrible flood swept poor Jimmy away
During six stormy days in July

Farewell to the gold that never I found
Goodbye to the nuggets that somewhere abound
For it's only when dreaming that I see you gleaming
Down in the dark deep underground

--------------------
Paul Metsers (New Zealand) (1970s)
from Nic Jones on "Penguin Eggs"