The chance to take players and coaches to somewhere different, combined with commercial opportunities, made the Highlanders' first match in Asia too good an opportunity to turn down.
The southern franchise confirmed yesterday it will play French side Racing 92 in Hong Kong on February 6 in the Natixis Cup.
The match will be played at the Siu Sai Wan Stadium, an 11,800-capacity rugby-specific stadium in Hong Kong.
The French club has played before in Hong Kong; against Toulouse in 2013 and an invitational team featuring mainly Hong Kong players in 2014.
The Highlanders will take 50 personnel to the city - 40 players and 10 management - including all its All Blacks and will arrive in the city on February 2.
The side will then take a couple of days to get back from Hong Kong which will make it a tight turnaround to be ready for its next pre-season match against the Crusaders in Waimumu, near Gore, on February 11.
Highlanders chief executive Roger Clark is not worried about the short period between games and said heading to Hong Kong was a great opportunity for the franchise.
"The commercial and sponsorship opportunities which we can get out of this is exciting. There are a number of promotions we are looking to do over there,'' he said.
"We have got a lot of interest from our sponsors since we started talking about it. Sure there is a bit of a tight turnaround in us getting back to play against the Crusaders but we have always found that little bit of adversity ends up helping us.''
Highlanders manager Paul McLachlan travelled to Hong Kong to check out the facilities last month.
With the French promoters paying for all the expenses of the match, including the accommodation for the Highlanders in Hong Kong, the southern franchise will save some significant cash by making the trip.
They usually head to Central Otago for a short camp in the new year instead.
The match will be played at 6pm local time, which is 11pm in New Zealand.
Originally, European champion Toulon was set down to play the Highlanders, the Super rugby champions, but contractual arrangements forced it out.
The Racing 92 side, which is third in the Top 14 league, has a side made up of 11 internationals, including former All Black first five-eighth Dan Carter.
Carter may come up against Lima Sopoaga, one of the contenders to take over Carter's No 10 All Black jersey.
Carter has just joined the club and will be part of a side which has plenty of experience.
It also includes French internationals Dimitri Szaezewski, Brice Dulin and Remi Tales.
Welshmen Luke Charteris and Mike Phillips also play for the club along with veteran Italian prop Martin Castrogiovanni.
The game will be played in a break of the Top 14 competition as the opening round of the Six Nations competition gets played.
Clark said the Highlanders and their partners were looking to arrange deals to get fans to Hong Kong for the match and there had some interest already.
The match was being broadcast but Sky has yet to be confirm it would cover the game.
It said yesterday it was still looking into the option and may have a decision in about a week.
The final game of the Highlanders pre-season is against the Waratahs in Queenstown on February 19.
Highlanders to Asia
The details
• Game against Racing 92 to be played on February 6
• Highlanders arrive in Hong Kong on February 2
• Taking 40 players and 10 management (including all All Blacks)
• Playing for the Natixis Cup (Natixis s a French finance company)