Newly wed Bollywood stars Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan are believed to be honeymooning in Tahiti after passing through New Zealand over the weekend.

The couple were married 10 days ago in Mumbai and last Saturday morning a Stuff reader said he saw Ms Rai at Papeete Airport. He was boarding an Air New Zealand flight home while she had just come in on the inbound flight.

She was seen to give an autograph to a person at the airport.

Indian media say the couple are honeymooning in France - and Tahiti is part of French Polynesia.

Ms Rai, a former Miss World, is one of India's top female leads while her new husband is the son of legendary Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan.

According to Indian community sources in New Zealand, who did not want to be named, Abhishek has visited New Zealand several times and made movies here.

There were rumours they were honeymooning in New Zealand but these have been discounted.

"If he was coming here we would have heard, and we're 99.9 percent certain that they are not here," the source said.