The family returned to New Zealand and settled in Fendalton, Christchurch, and Clifford continued her education at St Mary's Convent.

As a teenager, she was a keen mountaineer and skier, and frequently hiked in the Aoraki / Mount Cook region.

She joined the London Aero Club and flew from the Stag Lane Aerodrome, and also completed a three-month course in mechanics at the De Havilland factory, becoming a qualified ground engineer.

[9] Clifford returned to New Zealand in 1931, bringing back her own aeroplane, a de Havilland Puss Moth, which she had purchased in England.

[2] Clifford died in Amuri Hospital in Rotherham on 30 November 1933 of pneumonia, two days after giving birth to a son.