I've had this song going around in my head for a while now. It brings me back to about 1981. I was 21. A few years before, I had bought a most impressive "laser cut" LP by the Split Enz and revelled in watching it spin around on my Techniques turntable as the rainbow colors flashed off the otherwise black vinyl. My second Split Enz record included this song - which garnered my immediate favor for obvious reasons. What I didn't know then was that the Split Enz were from New Zealand. Being well before the age of Google, I also had no idea what the word Aotearoa meant. It is the New Zealand Maori word for New Zealand. Strange that it took me 31 years to exerience these lyrics for myself.

Six Months in a Leaky Boat - by the Split Enz.
When I was a young boy
I wanted to sail around the world
That's the life for me, living on the sea
Spirit of a sailor, circumnavigates the globe
The lust of a pioneer, will acknowledge
No frontier
I remember you by, thunderclap in the sky
Lightning flash, tempers flare,
'round the horn if you dare
I just spent six months in a leaky boat
Lucky just to keep afloat

Aotearoa, rugged individual
Glisten like a pearl
At the bottom of the world
The tyranny of distance
Didn't stop the cavalier
So why should it stop me
I'll conquer and stay free
Ah c'mon all you lads
Let's forget and forgive
There's a world to explore
Tales to tell back on shore
I just spent six months in a leaky boat
Six months in a leaky boat

Ship-wrecked love can be cruel
Don't be fooled by her kind
There's a wind in my sails
Will protect and prevail
I just spent six months in a leaky boat
Nothing to it leaky boat.