Ms Gray, who turns 54 on Saturday, has lived in England since 1981 and works for the British Government, providing policy advice for child protection.
She was presented with an OBE from the Queen at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace last year.
She is in New Zealand visiting family and friends with husband Stephen Pizzey and daughter Clementine (13).
Ms Gray, the daughter of Hilda and the late Mervyn Gray, grew up on a farm near the Waitaki River.
She attended Papakaio Primary School and Waitaki Girls High School before studying for a BSc at the University of Otago, followed by a post-graduate social work course at Canterbury University.
She travelled and worked in Sydney before returning to work as a social worker in Wainuiomata.
After travelling through the United States, she went to the UK, where she worked as a social worker before eventually working for the Government.
Her job was challenging and demanding, but interesting. She works in London and lives in nearby Surrey.
Ms Gray learned in June 2007 she had been awarded an OBE - "I couldn't believe it" - and it was presented in March the following year.
It was a very special day - "the key thing was what to wear and the hat", she said, laughing - and the Queen was "lovely", she said.
The day was capped by having lunch at celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay's restaurant.
This week, Ms Gray made the pilgrimage to the small cemetery at Papakaio, on the lower Waitaki plains, where family members are buried and the place where she wants to be buried.
As the family drove through North Otago, she pointed out where she caught the school bus, where she bought the pies for her school lunch and where the fish and chips were bought on a Friday night - "all the great memories", she said.
