Aaron Smith believes rugby should have taken a back seat as he attempted to patch things up with his family after his off-field indiscretion last year.

In September, the New Zealand scrum-half was pictured entering a disabled toilet at Christchurch Airport with a female who was not his partner.

Smith was subsequently suspended by the All Blacks for "breaching team standards" before making a tearful public apology.

Ahead of his 100th Super Rugby appearance on Friday, the Highlanders number nine concedes it was a difficult period for him and his family.

"It was a huge mistake by me, obviously," Smith said. "The way it hurt my family and my partner, and then myself obviously, it was just a really tough time.

"I probably should have put rugby on the backburner then and focused on myself and my family.

"But we're past that and I've learnt a lot from it - I think a lot of positives have come from that incident for me personally, on field and off field.

"I fixed a lot of things mentally off the field and that cleared me up to train really hard in the off-season.

"I'm in a really good place right now and I'm just loving how I am on the field and off the field, and how life is."