The All Black fullback pushed All Black great Christian Cullen off the record books and has now made the most starts of any All Black fullback.
Muliaina (27) started his 46th test at fullback then shifted to the wing in the second spell when Sitiveni Sivivatu was injured.
"I was disappointed by the result," he said. "But it was a pretty good week in Dunedin. I enjoyed coming down here and was excited about playing on Carisbrook.
"A lot of my family came up from Invercargill for the game and that was special.
"The atmosphere was awesome. The ground conditions were great. It was a great test match played with a lot of intensity."
Muliaina was the most dominant All Black on the paddock and made several strong runs up the middle.
"They [Springboks] kicked a bit more than last week and I got my hand on the ball a bit more," he said.
A break by Muliaina up the centre just before half-time led to a Daniel Carter penalty goal which brought the All Blacks within two points of South Africa at the break.
"We needed those points to keep in contact. Our mindset at training this week was to keep on our feet and I took it into the game."
The game was noted as a stop-start affair.
"Yes it was a bit frustrating," Muliaina said. "It's fair to say that referee Matt Goddard was looking for more things off the ball than concentrating on the actual game."
The All Blacks failed to achieve the same dominance in the forwards that they had in Wellington.
"They are the best line-out combination in the world and our jumpers are inexperienced."
Looking ahead to the Wallaby tests, Muliaina expects the Australians to be more structured than the South Africans, but he is confident of beating them.
"We have had two really good hit outs and two very close test matches at Wellington and Dunedin.
"We will have a very long week away and come back all guns blazing to face the Aussies."
