Backpackers Emmett Goucher and Jamie Cameron are relieved their visas have been extended. Photo / Louise Gould
Backpackers Emmett Goucher and Jamie Cameron are relieved their visas have been extended. Photo / Louise Gould
Backpackers and overseas workers in Hawke's Bay say the Government's extension of their visas "feels like Christmas".
The Government has announced it plans to extend Supplementary Seasonal Employment (SSE) schemes and transition those on them to Working Holiday visas.
Emmett Goucher from Ireland and Jamie Cameron from Torquay, England, haveboth been in New Zealand, predominantly Hawke's Bay, for more than 18 months.
Goucher said he had been stressed about his visa running out and having to return to his home country within weeks, with no chance of a job and having to go back to his parents' home.
"It was brilliant news, and the fact that we were on SSEs and we've been changed back to our working holiday visas now means we're not just stuck working fruit jobs and farm jobs, we can actually go and get a job in construction and hospitality too," he said.
The Rotten Apple Backpackers owner Jason Heard. Photo / Louise Gould
A total of 10,000 working holiday visa holders will now have their visas extended.
Goucher and Cameron have both been working in packhouses and on orchards in recent months, which they say has been great, but not without its challenges.
Cameron said, at times, the work was stressful due to the worker shortage.
"Even though they are completely understaffed you'd expect the industry to slow output, but that's not the case, so people's natural instinct was to just rush around," he said.
Cameron and Goucher have been living in The Rotten Apple Backpackers in central Hastings.
Owner Jason Heard said the visa extensions announcement was great as they had anticipated that the Government would say no and "shift them on".
"We really need them, you talk to the growers, there's a lot of apples still left on the trees," he said.
"Keeping backpackers here also keeps us in business."
Heard said he can't see tourism and backpacking culture bouncing back to the way it was pre-Covid-19.
"That backpacking life is slowly waning," he said.
"We've had to look for different clientele and because it's budget you often get the Kiwis who are budget and they're not really the right fit."
After spending all their time in New Zealand and Hawke's Bay working in agriculture, Cameron and Goucher said they were looking at potentially going into other sectors like infrastructure and hospitality.
Hospitality New Zealand chief executive Julie White welcomed the visa extensions saying it will help the industry, but more needs to be done. Photo / Getty
"There are still a few backpackers around and we were all doing the agricultural jobs but hospitality has been left short - and construction," the Irishman said.
Hospitality New Zealand chief executive Julie White said businesses needed to retain their existing essential workers so the extension was a positive move that will help the sector get back on its feet.
But White said the extension won't be enough to combat the staffing shortage.
"We need something now that's going to give businesses the skills they need to operate, and migrants are the answer, but we've been hard-pressed to convince the Government of this," she said.
"Skills shortages are the industry's major stressor right now and we're finding ourselves at what can only be described as a crisis level."
