The Highlanders may have lost out on a home semifinal but the side still has a chance of returning to Forsyth Barr Stadium this season.
The side left Sydney yesterday about lunchtime, bound for Johannesburg and a date in the semifinals of the Super rugby competition with the Lions early Sunday (NZ time).
The Highlanders qualified for the semifinals with a tense 15-9 win over the Brumbies in Dunedin on Friday night. Three New Zealand teams made the final four.
The Hurricanes will host the Chiefs on Saturday night in Wellington in the other semifinal after both had convincing wins during the weekend.
The Highlanders travelled to South Africa only three weeks ago in what was a round-the-world trip so the players are becoming masters of air travel.
By the time the team returns to New Zealand next week it will have logged more than three whole days in the air in the past month.
It will face an energetic Lions team which beat the Crusaders 45-25 in Johannesburg.
That win dashed any hope of the Highlanders hosting a semifinal.
But if the Chiefs beat the Hurricanes on Saturday and the Highlanders do the business in South Africa the final will be at Forsyth Barr Stadium.
The Highlanders beat the Lions earlier this season at Forsyth Barr Stadium but the travel and playing at altitude will make defeating the South African side a hard mountain to climb.
