The bulk of the side, and its coaching staff, are holed up on the Gold Coast plotting to take on the Reds in Brisbane on Saturday night.
But the side's six All Blacks have been in Auckland for an All Blacks camp for the past three days and were only scheduled to rejoin the side late last night.
Highlanders assistant coach Mark Hammett said although it was far from ideal preparation and it was a hinderance to have players away, there were ways to work around it.
''The thing about it is we knew it was going to happen so we could work around it. It is challenging, but we will look to make sure these guys are up to speed,'' he said.
''It gives some of the guys time to get acquainted with what we are are trying to do this week. We have sent some video on to them, some documents with pictures and diagrams, all that sort of stuff.''
Highlanders co-captain Ben Smith is scheduled to miss the match against the Reds as part of the enforced All Blacks rest programme but his absence will be made up for by the inclusion of the returning Liam Squire.
Squire has been out since early March with a broken thumb, but was named in the All Blacks squad on Sunday and Hammett said the loose forward would be included in the match-day squad for this Saturday.
The Highlanders have been light on numbers this week with the All Blacks away and Sanzaar regulations limiting the number of squad members it could have with the team. The side had to bring in local players to make up numbers. The side did defensive drills yesterday, so needed a full quota for two sides at training.
Loose forward Elliot Dixon took a bang on the elbow in the heavy loss against Waratahs and it was touch and go whether he would be available against the Reds, Hammett said.
The loss to the Waratahs had been disappointing and the side had let itself down at times.
Although he did not want to use the red card to Tevita Nabura as an excuse, going down to 14 men for the bulk of the game was very hard, Hammett said.
The side had a decent review of the game and there were issues around the defence in the middle of the park.
The detail in many parts of its game was not quite there.
Nabura had not been replaced in the squad as Sanzaar rules did not allow it.
The Reds was a team on the improve - they had pushed the Hurricanes close last Friday night and were showing plenty of fight under new coach Brad Thorn.
Hammett said they were a team which played a simple style and had some real X-factor players.