Another good'un from the land of the long white cloud. R-J, back in September you indicated that it was one of your NZ favourites.

HILLS OF COROMANDEL
(Dave Jordan)

The hills grow ancient, green and tall, as they have always done there
And press together over all, to shield the earth from sun there
Seedlings grow, young trees grow old, old ones die and turn to mould
Till bush returns to hills once clear, and man, it seems, was never there
But the apple trees still bloom each year in the hills of Coromandel

It was the gold that brought the men when thousands here did rally
Their secret shattered shafts remain, abandoned in the valley
Roads they fashioned in the clay are overgrown or washed away
And fences built by settlers' hands are gone restoring broken lands
And a rusted gateway lonely stands in the hills of Coromandel

No more the taverns where they stood, no more the thousand people
And timber church is gone for good with ruined, rotted steeple
It's years now since the miner came to work the gold, exhaust his claim
Then leave the place for better game than that he'd found, but just the same
The toppled tombstones bear their names in the hills of Coromandel

Those days of gold are past and gone with the men who took their chances
The bush is slowly marching on in a silence no one answers
Now birds call loud to empty air - no one comes, there's nothing there
But a gate that's open to nowhere and names on sandstone faint but clear
And the apple trees that bloom each year in the hills of Coromandel

Youtube clip

Dave Jordan

--Stewie.