Kiwis and koalas will welcome Duke and Duchess of Sussex on first overseas tour

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will see koalas and visit Bondi Beach on their first major overseas tour as a royal couple.

Harry and Meghan will spend 16 days travelling around Australia, Fiji, the Kingdom of Tonga, and New Zealand from October 16 to 31.

The tour of the Pacific region will be a first for Meghan as a member of the royal family, and the first time she has visited many of the destinations at all.

At a media briefing about the tour on Thursday, Harry and Meghan’s private secretary Sam Cohen said the duchess had travelled to New Zealand as a tourist in 2014.

During the tour, the couple will attend Harry’s Invictus Games, a Paralympics-style championship for injured or sick servicemen and women and veterans being staged in Sydney in October.

The duke and duchess, who made a brief visit to Dublin during the summer, will spend their time in Australia visiting Melbourne, Sydney, the popular holiday town of Dubbo in New South Wales and the country’s Fraser Island, a destination for eco-tourists.

The couple will visit Bondi Beach, one of Australia’s most famous landmarks, where they will meet a local surfing community group.

The group, known as OneWave, raise awareness for mental health and wellbeing.

Harry, accompanied by the Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison, will climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge to raise the Invictus flag.

The couple will go to Taronga Zoo where they will open the new Taronga Institute of Science and Learning.

During this visit they will meet two koalas and their joeys that are part of the zoo’s breeding programme.

The couple will also visit Suva, the capital of Fiji and the tourist hub of Nadi. In Tonga they will spend time in the capital Nuku’alofa.

In New Zealand, Harry and Meghan will tour the capital Wellington and visit Auckland and then Rotorua, which is famed for its Maori culture, and then head to Abel Tasman National Park in the South Island.

At a welcome ceremony in Wellington, the couple will see a haka performed by members of the New Zealand Defence Force.

In Auckland, Harry and Meghan will visit the North Shore to dedicate a 20-hectare area of native bush to the Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy.

After unveiling a plaque, the couple will join children from the Trees in Survival group in a “welly-wanging” contest.

On a trip to kiwi breeding programme in Rainbow Springs, the duke and duchess will have the chance to name two young kiwi chicks that have recently hatched.

Ms Cohen said 10 staff would be travelling with the couple.

Along with Ms Cohen, the party will include the couple’s assistant private secretary, three members of the communications team, a programme co-ordinator, an orderly, a digital officer, a personal assistant and a hairdresser.

Two additional staff members will join the couple for the trips to Fiji and Tonga – a second assistant private secretary and senior adviser to the couple Sir David Manning.

The cost of the hairdresser will be covered privately.

Harry and Meghan will fly on commercial flights to and from Australia, and on charter flights to Fiji and Tonga.

The couple will stay at the Governor-General’s residences in Sydney and Wellington, and in a royal villa in Tonga.

They will also stay in a hotel while in Fiji, Auckland, and on their final nights in Sydney.