Verse 1/
The volcano is smoking, I'm uneasy and
homesick,
The ground shakes without warning and it's too hot to sleep;
You
may think that I'm joking, but it's far from romantic,
They hitch horses in
the main street, and every household has its sheep
It's not how they described
it, the house they promised isn't built yet
There's five of us in two rooms
above the store;
Father's working long hours and the money doesn't go far,
But the neighbours leave bags of kumara by the door.
Chorus
First
impressions are lasting, I hope we made a good one,
We're not like the whingeing
immigrants our neighbours can't abide
First impressions are lasting, but new
ones overwhelm them,
Impressions of New Zealand _ 1955, let's give it some
time.
Verse 2/
The volcano's still smoking,
dropping ash on the washing,
It's been raining for a month and nothing seems
to change,
But this land is thought-provoking, it's young and it's still breathing,
The Maoris are friendly, though the white folk think we're strange.
There
goes the Scottish woman, she wears a fur coat in the winter,
She played the
organ at church on Sunday, so they say,
Father's working long hours and the
money doesn't go far
We need a new fridge, we can't afford one, not today.
Chorus
Repeat
Verse 3/
The volcano's erupting, there's a mass
evacuation,
That's it, I told Father, we're moving to the sea;
The children
found it all disrupting,
But there's a mood of quiet elation,
To be back
beside the ocean, feeling free
For there's fresh food aplenty, no more queuing
for our rations,
We're catching whitebait and flounder at our front door,
The children all have new friends, they're playing cowboys by the river,
While we sit in the sun and make plans to buy the store.
Last
Chorus/
First
impressions are lasting, I'm sure we made a good one,
We're not like the whingeing
immigrants our neighbours can't abide
First impressions are lasting, but new
ones overwhelm them,
Impressions of New Zealand _ 1955, let's give it some
time.
Impressions of New Zealand, let's give it some time