Blond ambition: world peace

New Zealand's hope in the Miss Universe pageant, Elizabeth Gray, is fulfilling a childhood dream. Picture / Reuters

She's tall, blond and slim. She's a model and a dancer. She wants to work in media presenting a travel or music show and wishes everyone would just get along.

And this weekend, she'll live out her childhood dream - to be in the Miss Universe beauty pageant.

But New Zealand's hope for the title, Elizabeth Gray, says she's not a cliche. The 23-year-old Aucklander recalls watching the event when she was 8 and looking up to Miss Venezuela.

She was born the year Lorraine Downes won Miss Universe, making her one of the oldest contestants. She never thought she'd get there. But here she is, in Los Angeles with 81 other women, some of them barely past puberty, most on some form of restrictive diet and severe exercise regime - all in the same small area competing for the same crown.

It's been a great experience, says Gray. Miss Australia, her room-mate, has been great. Colombia is great, as is Albania - they call each other by their country names, they're easier to remember. Spare a thought for the Virgin Islands and Turks & Caicos.

Gray's preparation went well: She managed to pack enough clothes to last three weeks, a more difficult task than expected. Australia was left in the unenviable position of having to wear the same thing twice.

There's a bit of bitchiness, says Gray: 82 young women in one hotel. Some have been a bit put out by the amount of attention the South American girls have been getting from the Latino television stations, but Gray tries to rise above it. She reckons her blond hair gives her an edge.

"People are commenting on how I've got a really great walk. I'm the tallest. And I don't have hair extensions.

"I think I've really got the whole package. I'm conscientious towards others, I'm down-to-earth, I'm not letting all the media get to me, I'm just being myself and hopefully that's shining through."

And of course it's more than just posing. Gray has spent the morning giving her 30-second prepared statement to judges about, well, herself. "I just said, 'Hi, I'm Elizabeth'. Then I told them that I'd been dancing in America and that I'm working in the advertising industry, that I love to paint and that it allows me to relax and express my creativity.

"I told them I'm ambitious, blah blah blah, and that I'm an ambassador for the CureKids charity in NZ."

She's practised answers to other likely questions: The contestants have their television tuned to CNN when they're in their rooms, brushing up on topical issues, "like the situation between Israel and Lebanon". And so the question had to be asked: "Miss New Zealand, how do you feel about the big conflict in Lebanon?"

"I think it's really disturbing and it's quite sad because we have Israel and Lebanon here at the pageant. I asked Miss Lebanon if her family was okay and she said there's no airport so her family can't come and watch the show and she has no way of getting home after the pageant.

"Sometimes we all feel like we're in this little bubble here.

"I think it's horrific what's happening and I just wish everything could be good."

World peace, then? "Yeah."