This botanical whodunnit began in February 2012 when six biosecurity officials from the Ministry for Primary Industries - backed by two police officers - unexpectedly arrived at the Higgies nationally significant Paloma Gardens.
They had a search warrant, and were looking for evidence of illegal plant imports - in particular a Pacific Islands relation of the New Zealand kauri, Agathis silbae.
They took computers and plant material, and wandered the gardens writing down the names of some of the labelled plants.
The next thing the Higgies heard was in October when two Auckland plant people, and the Auckland Botanic Gardens, were subjected to a dawn raid looking for the same species. The botanic gardens were raided again in March last year.
Two years after that first raid, the Higgies have finally been charged - though the charges don't relate to the plant for which the officials were originally looking.
The couple hope to avoid a court appearance by proving the fig tree was in New Zealand before 1997, when new plant imports without approval from the Ministry of Primary Industries were banned.
Mr Higgie was heading to Northland on Tuesday to find nurseries selling the plant. He's also got a statement from the Hawke's Bay man who supplied it to him in the mid-1990s.
And he's hoping to prove that another fig of the same species, growing in his garden, was planted before the 1997 ban.
No one has yet been charged over the kauri relative, though that could still happen.
The matter has cost the Higgies in legal fees and worry. Mr Higgie guesses the officials took away the list of plants in their garden and looked for any not listed as present in New Zealand. He said the strangler fig should have been on the list though, because it was present.
"The big problem is the list is so incomplete. It's their inefficiency rather than my naughtiness."