I just completed this task. I backed up my contacts from within gmail to a VCF file & emailed them to myself. Then i opened the email in my Apple Mail app. Next i tapped on the VCF attachment file & waited for it to download. Then I tapped on it again (long-ish tap) and a dialog popped up asking if I wanted to "Add all x number of contacts?" I tapped yes, & they are now on my iPad.
(BTW, I'm aware that I could simply set it up in iTunes or iPad settings to have contacts sync with each other (gmail & iPad), but I had some issues back with the iPad1 & my android phone, so I prefer that the above method, since they don't always play nice.