A Te Puke country backpackers is experiencing huge growth ahead of a busy kiwifruit season thanks to the emergence of new type of traveller filling its typically high-vacancy months.

Kiwi Corral owner Bernie Cotter and manager Wes Archer, helping German tourists Ludwig and Sissi.

Kiwi Corral has six new cabins ahead of busy kiwifruit season, to keep RSE workers and European backpackers flowing through. Photos by Tracy Hardy.

Kiwi Corral Country Backpackers, on Te Puke's Young Rd next to the Kiwi360 tourism attraction, has seen its stays increase by more than 400 per cent during the last two months compared to November and December in 2012.

Bernie Cotter, who has taken over ownership of the 350-bed facility, says he's 'absolutely surprised” at the huge jump in figures but can pinpoint where they've come from.

Along with manager Wes Archer, Bernie has been working to re-brand the accommodation facility as a country hostel and backpackers to capture a breed of backpacker wanting a rural experience in New Zealand.

'Kiwi Corral was originally built for the kiwifruit industry for the RSE [recognised seasonal employer] workers; and obviously we got hurt from the detection of Psa-V in this region, like all kiwifruit people did; so I got the idea of diversifying into backpacker and hostel accommodation,” says Bernie.

'And that's what we're doing, as well as having RSE kiwifruit workers during the season.”

Bernie says Kiwi Corral is now getting loads of European and South American backpackers – along with others from around the globe – who come to stay in cabins, dorms, tents and no-facility vans no matter what month it is.

'They come to work and play; a lot of the local contractors and orchardists ring us and we find them workers from our visitors.

'These people are from all over Europe and South America; Germans this year were definitely the dominate ones. Its starts with one and then we have to ask ‘where do all your mates come from?'”

Bernie, who owned the iconic Elizabeth Gardens at Pilot Bay for 30 years, says the backpacker industry is big business. 'It's one of the fastest growing businesses worldwide.

'I think what they like in Te Puke is the quietness – they're also right in the middle of the region, so they can go to the Mount, Rotorua, do the white-water rafting and all sorts.”