Malcolm Rewa has gone on trial today - charged for the third time with killing Auckland woman Susan Burdett 27 years ago.

Chief High Court judge, Justice Geoffrey Venning, acknowledged many in the jury would have heard parts of the case before, particularly because of the high-profile connection to Teina Pora.

The case found infamy when Teina Pora was twice wrongly convicted for murdering Burdett.

He spent 22 years in prison before the Privy Council quashed his conviction in 2015 and has since received an apology from the Government and $3.5 million in compensation.

A stay of proceedings for a murder prosecution against Rewa was applied by the Solicitor-General in 1998, but in 2017 the Deputy Solicitor-General, on behalf of the Attorney-General, reversed the stay.

A stay had never before been lifted in New Zealand's legal history.

And new hope on day seven of the Nelson fires, as Wakefield residents are allowed back into their homes.