A Couple Of Questions Re Retirement

This is my first post on the forum. I've been reading it for months and getting a great amount of useful information from it. Thanks for that.

My wife and I qualify under the goverment rules and are planning to retire to Phuket later this year.

A couple of questions:

1. We have lived in many parts of the world and wherever we have my wife, a trained nurse, has volunteered for non-paying charitable work. Having read the recent reports that volunteers helping post-tsunami have been told they must have work permits we are concerned that this policy might preclude her from volunteering. A potential Catch 22 - volunteers must have work permits, retiress are not permitted to work. Any thoughts?

2. While our reason for relocating is retirement I am interested as well at possible investment in Phuket. I am a very keen diver and thought that taking a stake in a dive operation - but not working - might keep the grey matter active. Is this permitted?