The Highlanders will play the other four New Zealand sides to kick off their 2017 season and will face considerably less travel than they did this year.
The draw for the Super rugby competition was released yesterday and, with it, confirmation the format for the finals will stay the same.
The draw has to take into consideration the tour of the British and Irish Lions and there is a later break for the New Zealand teams in the June international test window.
The Highlanders have one more home game than last year - that alternates every year - and will play seven games at Forsyth Barr Stadium and one in Invercargill.
Highlanders chief executive Roger Clark said they were yet to decide which game would be played in Invercargill.
''We need to meet all the affected parties and see where we are placed. But a draw is a draw. You can look at and examine it but it is what it is and you just get on with it,'' Clark said.
The season opens with a Friday night game against the Chiefs at Forsyth Barr Stadium and is followed by a match against the Crusaders on March 4, again under the roof.
''Those two games we can tie in with university orientation so we would expect to get some bumper crowds in those first two weeks. After that it depends on timing and how the team is performing.''
The side will head to Africa in early May and then play the Force in Perth on the way home. This year the franchise ended up going round the world, first playing the Kings and then the Jaguares in Buenos Aires.
''We are doing a lot less travelling next year than last which has to be good. We are going to Africa at a good time. Not as late as this year anyway. Away from the June break and not too close to the finals.''
The New Zealand teams had been pushing for an easy-to-follow competition table and to do away with teams from each country having an automatic right to host a playoff game no matter where they finished on the points table.
Clark was at a meeting in Sydney last week to discuss the structures of the competition and it appears the pleas from New Zealand franchises to change the finals format have fallen on deaf ears.
Sanzaar chief executive Andy Marinos told media in Sydney on Monday the format was going to stay in conferences for the foreseeable future.
Marinos said there was not too much wrong with the product and the best two teams in the competition - the Lions and the Hurricanes - made it to the final this year.
Clark said the New Zealand franchises had presented their argument at the meeting in Sydney and that is where it had ended. Franchises would discuss issues with New Zealand Rugby at a meeting today when issues around the competition will be canvassed.
The Highlanders will play a rare day game next year, taking on the Crusaders in Christchurch on June 3 with a 2.35pm kick-off.
The side will play the teams in the other South African conference next season so will not play the Lions, Sharks, Jaguares or Kings.
It will have its first match against the Japanese outfit, the Sunwolves, at home on April 22.
The team will play the Blues and Crusaders home and away next year.
The competition will kick off on February 23, a Thursday night, when the Rebels host the Blues in Melbourne.