Sir Ray is made a knight in today's New Year's Honours, just over a week after his wife Anna, now Lady Avery, presented him with what he has called a most glorious Christmas present, a daughter, Anastasia, born on December 23.
"All the gongs have come at once," he told NZPA.
Sir Ray, named New Zealander of the year in February by Prime Minister John Key, becomes a Knight Grand Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to philanthropy. It is one of the country's highest honours.
The scientist, inventor and humanitarian has used his skills to improve the lives of the world's poorest people, with several inventions. He set up the independent development agency Medicine Mondiale, which creates affordable products to improve access to quality healthcare on a global scale. He has also developed production of inexpensive interocular lenses to restore sight to millions of people and helped establish factories making the lenses in Nepal and Eritrea.
Sir Ray was born in England but bristles slightly when called a Pom.
He was a New Zealander born in the wrong place and within nine months of arriving in the country in 1973 became a New Zealand citizen.
"From the moment I stepped off the mainland of England I was on a journey to find home and when I stepped onto New Zealand I found it."
New Zealanders had an inventive gene "innately impregnated in our DNA," he said.
"More importantly than that, we are a can-do country. The country I left behind in England was not a can-do country."
After running away from home because of his abusive parents in England, he lived for several months under a railway bridge near Finsbury Park, east London, and dreamed of owning his own bicycle shop.
"The thought of being a knight was very, very far from my imagination.
"But I came to New Zealand in the early 1970s and fell in love with New Zealand and it is great to be recognised and loved by the country you love."
However, his knighthood was not just about him.
"It is about the labyrinth of scientists and technicians who all donate their time for free to make sure the stuff we do happens, so I was happy to accept the award on their behalf as much as mine."
He spoke about his award as he and his Greek father-in-law built a deck at his Mt Eden, Auckland, home, using his own nail gun.
"I don't think you are a proper Kiwi until you own your own nail gun and know how to use it."
From an early age he began pulling things apart "just to see how they worked.
"I discovered all on my own DC electricity. I was in my bed and the globe was going in the standard lamp.
"I wondered where the power to drive that bulb was coming from. I unscrewed the bulb and it went out so I thought it is not inside the bulb, it is somewhere deep inside.
"I stuck my fingers down and was instantly got a shock. I was seven."
From the light he moved to pulling apart television sets when he was nine in what he called a "very Kiwi kind of attitude to applied science."
Sir Ray said he had never been much for titles. Some people would call him Sir Ray but others would call him Mr Ray, as they had done for a long time as a sign of affection, and that was fine with him.
