Shotover river, your gold it is waning It's weeks since the colour I've seen But it's no use just sitting and Lady Luck blaming So 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 nearly two years since I left my old mother For adventure and gold by the pound With Jimmy the prospector - he was another For the hills of Otago was bound We worked the Cardrona's dry valley all over Old Jimmy Williams and me But they were panning good dirt on the winding Shotover So we headed down there just to see We sluiced and we cradled for day after day Making hardly enough to get by Til a terrible flood swept poor Jimmy away During six stormy days in July