“It was during the fourth roadside squat, this time in a fetid ditch next to a donkey paddock, as the sun scorched the back of my neck that I thought “this was not what I had in mind.””

But that was the reality for Tamahere journalist Isobel Ewing this week, as she relates on her blog, as she cycles the ancient Silk Road, an ancient trading route that stretches from China to the Mediterranean.

Inside a corrugated iron shed deep in Tamahere, a 132-year-old kauri lady sits cradled by a boat stand.

Tamahere is not the oddest place this 45ft yacht has lived.

Thirty years ago, she was moored next to a Christchurch tavern before being sabotaged and sunk.

Don’t mention the ‘R’ word to Generation ‘U’ (unretired).

The population of New Zealanders reaching retirement age will double in the next 15 years as hundreds of thousands of ‘baby boomers” officially cross the line. But increasing numbers are choosing not to leave their posts, writes Tamahere’s Venetia Sherson …

The latest QEII covenant registered in Tamahere is another small but important step toward restoring some of the vast natural environment lost in the Waikato.

Tamahere resident Leo Koppens is proud to have the sixth covenant in the Tamahere-Matangi area protecting private land forever.

The QEII National Trust partners with landowners to protect special places on private land for the benefit of present and future generations.

Tamahere journalist Isobel Ewing is taking her story telling on the road – the Silk Road, an ancient trading route that stretches from China to the Mediterranean.

Ewing won’t be peddling silk but she will be pedaling. She plans to bike more than 2000km from Samarkand, Uzbekistan to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan starting in early August.

One goal of the journey is to disconnect from the constant digital stream that is the lot of a broadcast journalist … and almost everyone else with an internet connection.

Tamahere author Nicky Webber has made a strong plea for tolerance in her first book No Ordinary Man.

Webber, a former journalist, tells the story of Mick Thompson, a young, World War II soldier who is forced by the times and intolerance to hide his true nature.

A brave soldier who fought in Egypt, Tunisia, Syria and Italy and gained the rank of sargeant, Thompson was also a cross dresser.

Tamahere writer Venetia Sherson and friend and co-author Denise Irvine recently launched their book, Stand By Me.

It is the story of Te Whakaruruhau Waikato Women’s Refuge and courageous women – those who survive domestic violence, and those who help them get their lives back on track.

Te Whakaruruhau is New Zealand’s largest women’s refuge and has helped thousands of women and children during its more than 30-year history.

Tamahere Forum editor Philippa Stevenson has returned home after six months volunteering in the Solomon Islands.

Stevenson, a journalist who founded Tamahere Forum in 2008, was based in Honiara from last September until this month with Volunteer Service Abroad (VSA) on an assignment to educate Solomon Island journalists.

We don’t know how lucky we are. Well, I didn’t anyway. Oh, I thought I did. But there is nothing like a month in a developing nation to challenge that notion.

I’ve been in the Solomon Islands since September 11, my very own 9/11 reality check.

I’m volunteering with NZ’s VSA (Volunteer Service Abroad), working in a small media company in Honiara.

Tamahere Forum editor Philippa Stevenson heads to the Solomon Islands early next month to put her journalism skills to use as a Volunteer Service Abroad (VSA) volunteer.

Stevenson, who founded and has run Tamahere Forum for 10 years, will spend six months in the Solomons’ capital Honiara as a newsroom and editorial adviser for a small, independent newspaper publisher.

The former NZ Herald and Waikato Times journalist said she was thrilled to have the opportunity to volunteer with VSA.