Meghan Markle and Prince Harry planning New Zealand visit - report

  • 21/05/2018

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will make a major international tour later this year - and they're reportedly planning on visiting New Zealand.

UK media reports planning for the high-profile trip down under is already underway, with officials involved at the highest level. The visit is expected to take place in October.

"They are already planning for all the work that's happening in the second half of the year which is going to be incredibly busy," a spokesperson for the couple said recently.

Other countries reportedly included in the tour are Australia, Fiji and Tonga.

This would be the first major international travel for the royal couple, who are believed to be delaying their honeymoon in order to return to work.

Harry last visited in 2015 on his first official royal tour, visiting Auckland, Wellington, Invercargill, Stewart Island, Wanaka and Whanganui.

And Meghan did a campervan trip around the South Island in 2014 - 10 days driving around the South Island, then four days by the beach in Waiheke - which she chronicled on her now defunct lifestyle site, The Tig.

"It is said to be one of the most beautiful countries in the world," she wrote in a post entitled 'My love letter to all things Kiwi'.

"Turns out, it really is."

Meghan's highlights were the Botswana Butcher in Queenstown, Cinema Paradiso at Wanaka, drinking Hans Hertzog in Marlborough, swimming with dolphins at Kaikoura and catching fresh clams on Waiheke.

But Meghan might already have New Zealand in mind for another visit, after being recommended us as a honeymoon destination.

Ellen Hawthorne, who met the new Duchess in March, told the Press Association she gave the new royal some good advice.

"I suggested New Zealand as a honeymoon destination because I went there last year for a month after my wedding," she says.

"I told her it was lovely and she said she'd keep it in mind."

Newshub.