I don't know if the fittings vary from model to model but the rear box on mine is held in place by a very thick rubber band through which a metal hook attached to the rear box goes and another one welded to the rear underside of the car near the bumper. All I did was spray some WD40 on the rubber where the metal hook passes through in order to lubricate it and then just wiggle it off, leaving it attached to the rear silence.
You can then let the rear box hang down a bit and it gives you enough free movement to get behind it to get to that top shock absorber nut easily. Unless you can't avoid it I wouldn't be looking to undo anything further back, it's a bit difficult to make out the bits in your photo, but I managed it easily enough as described and I am a true mechanical numpty!
As per my original post on this, use a hex socket on the shock nuts, they might be really tight and a normal socket might round them off. I gave mine the usual generous helping of WD beforehand. You've probably worked this out already but when you put the new ones in it's a good idea to compress the shocks so that you can get them past the trailing arms etc into their mounting box. Are you doing the springs too?
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