The blaze that eventually consumed an area of 710ha, including 250ha of standing trees, started on February 23 in Wenita's Mt Allan forestry block, northwest of Dunedin.
Dozens of people, using helicopters, water tankers, aircraft and spades battled the fire for nearly two weeks before it was contained. Thousands of man hours have been spent on the site since, wetting and digging over hotspots.
Yesterday, Wenita chief executive Dave Cormack said hotspots still required damping down occasionally.
"It's mainly in a strong wind you'll see see smoke rising from the ground in some spots."
It was a headache for the company, but recent wet weather had been helpful after two "hot, dry and windy" months.
Little more than 20mm of rain had fallen on the fire site between February and last week, when rain fell several days in a row.
"Everyone has done a marvellous job of keeping a lid on everything. Now Mother Nature's going to step in and give us a hand."
Mr Cormack said the company filed an insurance claim early in the piece. He was not prepared to say what the actual cost of the fire was, except that it was "substantial" and the costs were still coming in because the fire remained alive underground in some spots.
Dunedin City Council principal rural fire officer Graeme Still said the rural fire authority had paid most of its bills, but was still waiting on a few invoices.
He could not say yet what the cost was to the authority, but said it was looking to recover the money from landowner Wenita, as per standard procedure.
The cost to the rural fire authority was also "substantial", he said.
A fire investigation commissioned by the authority was nearing completion, and a report was expected within the next week, he said.
