TRUDGING through knee-deep sludge in remote Laos is not usually on the average retirees bucket list - unless you are journalists like former ABC's foreign correspondents Iain and Trish Finlay now living on the Tweed.

For them life is about maintaining their passion for life for sharing knowledge, making a difference and giving back to others.

It's been a life changing and humbling experience for them, and has resulted in major changes for the communities of two poor villages in rural Laos.

In the process they have become road builders, financiers, and goodwill ambassadors.

They recently showed their documentary The Road To Phujong at Kingscliff Cinema where owners Stephen and Deborah Buge donated the theatre for night.

And what a team Iain and Trish make.

Both are authors, having co-written five books and six separately.

Iain is a freelance filmmaker and one of the original members of This Day Tonight team.

They were two of the founders of the Beyond 2000 TV show, and both travelled extensively for 10 years working on the series, Trish as producer and Iain as presenter.

Iain as foreign correspondent also covered major world news events, among them the war in Bangladesh.

The pair are fluent in Vietnamese and having worked together on various media projects in the country were asked by Australian Volunteers International Abroad in Vietnam to assist in setting up the Voice of Vietnam radio and TV networks.

The village conditions in Laos shocked us.

"They had so little, everyday life was hard, and like 75% of the Laos population they earned less than $3 a day.

"There were no roads….just knee deep mud tracks through the rice paddies. "We felt ultra privileged, and wanted to make a difference and realised that access was the key to improving everyone's lives, and so we became road builders, and diplomats, financiers, also fundraisers."

We came home and raised funds by showing a documentary we'd made.

"It's been a long hard haul but the road is in, they're not cut off and they can now send two rice harvests to markets instead of one. Our goal is to extend it to the next village at the end of the track, we're almost there."

Join in: Due to demand the doco will be shown on December 2, 7pm at Cabarita Bowls Club. Tickets $20, bookings 02 6676 1135.