Shotover River, your gold it is waning
It's been years since the color I've seen
No use in crying, Lady Luck blaming
I'll pack up and 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 been nearly four years since I left my poor mother
For adventure and gold by the pound
Jimmy the prospectorwell he was another
For 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 over
Old Jimmy Williams and me
Heard 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
So we sluiced and we cradled day after day
Making hardly enough to get by
Then a terrible flood washed poor Jimmy away
Six rainy 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