[Verse 1]
Shotover River, your gold it's waning
And it's years since the colour I've seen
But it's no use just sitting and Lady Luck blaming
I'll pack up, then I'll make the break clean

[Chorus]
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

[Verse 2]
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

[Chorus]
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

[Verse 3]
Well, we worked the Cardrona's dry valley all over
Old Jimmy Williams and me
They were panning good dirt on the winding Shotover
And so we headed down there just to see
[Chorus]
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

[Verse 4]
Well, we sluiced and we cradled for day after day
And making hardly enough to get by
But then a terrible flood swept poor Jimmy away
During six stormy days in July

[Chorus]
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