Turkish Halfeti Roses are incredibly rare. They are shaped just like regular roses, but their colour sets them apart. These roses are so black, you’d think someone spray-painted them. But it is actually their natural colour.

These stunning black roses would make excellent props in a movie about witches and black magic, or in a heavy-metal video. There’s something extremely attractive about them, in an intense sort of way.

Although they appear perfectly black, they’re actually a very deep crimson colour. These flowers are seasonal – they only grow during the summer in small number, and only in the tiny Turkish village of Halfeti. Thanks to the unique soil conditions of the region, and the pH levels of the groundwater (that seeps in from the river Euphrates), the roses take on a devilish hue. They bloom dark red during the spring and fade to black during the summer months.

The Mesopotamia High Country Walk is an awe-inspiring four day fully guided walking tour to some of the most remote parts of the Canterbury High Country. “High Country” is a New Zealand term for the elevated pastoral land found in the shadow of our mountain ranges, an area of low rainfall, cold winters and warm summers, huge isolated tracts of land settled and now farmed by a few hardy souls. It is a region of high mountains, wide braided rivers and golden tussock lands, a true lost world and one that will captivate you with its grandeur and unspoilt beauty.

Your walking tour focuses on Mesopotamia Station, the high country farm originally established by the English writer Samuel Butler in 1860. Butler was the son of a clergyman and destined to follow in his father’s footsteps, however he resisted and emigrated to New Zealand, choosing the life of a high country sheep farmer instead. This experience was to form the basis of his most famous literary work “Erewhon”.

Mesopotamia Station was purchased in 1945 by the Prouting Family, the current owners who have been farming here for several generations. Join your local walking guide to explore this historic station, and its surrounding trails. This is not a public trail; we walk over farm tracks, paddocks and tussock lands as we explore the station. Walks can include some hill climbs, small stream or creek crossings and walking on varied and uneven terrain, so is classified moderate.

The Mesopotamia High Country Walk incorporates walks to sites of historical and natural significance such as the final resting place of New Zealand’s Colonial Secretary, Dr Andrew Sinclair. Dr Sinclair was surveying the region with Julius von Haast in 1861 and drowned in the Rangitata River trying to get back to Butlers homestead at Mesopotamia. We also visit Peel Forest Reserve, where you can see first-hand,remnants of a lush forest of podocarps and ferns that once covered much of Canterbury and we walk to Mystery Lake and Mount Sunday (time permitting) a location well known to fans of the “Lord of the Rings” movies.

Be inspired by stories of hardship and survival, explore the land New Zealand’s pioneers fought to tame, and enjoy the peace and isolation of one of this country’s most iconic high country farms on the Mesopotamia High Country Walk - the true Middle Earth walking experience.