Benjamin Durrant and Abigail Page are accused of lighting a fire on the side of Moutere Highway in late February last year, three weeks after a huge blaze started in Pigeon Valley.
Photo: 123RF
They are also accused of lighting another fire on Pigeon Valley Road in early March.
The High Court in Wellington was told yesterday that firefighters were already battling the Pigeon Valley Fire, when they were diverted to the nearby Moutere Highway.
A fire chief told the court that conditions that day were as dry as, if not drier than, the day the big inferno started.
Crown Prosecutor Mark O'Donoghue said the pair's Holden Commodore was seen in the area by a truck driver.
"The Crown case is that Ben Durrant intentionally lit that fire on the highway ... and further that Abigail Page knowingly aided or abetted Durrant to intentionally light that fire," he said.
The lawyer representing Page, Robert Lithgow, denied his client started that fire. He said she was merely driving the car.
"Her partner sets fire to the KGB box - which he put rubbish in and threw it out the window - she knew that had happened - there's nothing she could do about that," he said.
A week later, another fire was lit on Pigeon Valley Road.
O'Donoghue told the court the pair's Holden Commodore was again seen.
He said the pair ignored requests to leave the area and instead headed another way where their car got stuck in a river bed.
Forestry workers who thought the pair looked suspicious gave chase as they attempted to leave, he said.
"The foresters surrounded them and told them they weren't going anywhere - when the police arrived both Durrant and Page were arrested."
Again, Lithgow told the jury his client was not the one that started that fire.
"They stop the car - she thought he was having a pee... they drove on - he's telling her what to do - and some angry loggers are trying to stop them, she's told to "drive drive drive" so that's the basic scenario," he said.
Durrant's lawyer, Steven Zindel, urged the jury to keep an open mind.
The case is set down for two weeks.
