Last month, the Supreme Court said it would hear Ellis' case. The approved ground of appeal was whether a miscarriage of justice occurred.
Speaking to Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking this morning, Ellis said he was "feeling quite excited" about the impending hearing, but hoped to live to see it happen.
"Somebody said to me 'it looks like the crèche case is pulling into the station' and I said 'well I hope my train isn't going out first'.
"It's taken a long time, but I am very optimistic," he said.
The Supreme Court will be looking at the original trial in light of modern science and expert evidence.
Ellis will be supported by a team of University of Otago staff who have done a vast amount of work on the appeal.
Peter Ellis has always maintained his innocence. Photo / File
Ellis told Hosking the university had done a "wonderful job".
"There have been people who have been working at the coal face for nearly 27 years who have all come together and put things together," he said.
Earlier this month, Law school dean Mark Henaghan, who is working on the case, told the Otago Daily Times the basis of the appeal was the "unreliability" of evidence admitted to the court by an "expert" psychiatrist and the children themselves.
When asked about the complexity of the evidence against him, Ellis told Hosking witnesses didn't "quite get it right".
"It's something that probably innately we all know as human beings that children are children and adults are adults, and we can all make mistakes," he said.
"We think we might have seen something or done something - and it's just unfortunate our memories have failed us or we just don't quite get it right."
Ellis was brought to tears when he spoke of what it had been like living with the convictions for all of these years, but he chose to focus on the positives.
"I have friends I never knew I had and expert witnesses that turned up; people who read Lynley Hood's book A City Possessed; and other people who have stumbled upon their own things and had their own life experiences and suddenly realised 'oh Peter Ellis has been through something similar'," he said.
Peter Ellis and his mother Lesley Ellis at a press conference in Christchurch in 2000. Photo / Mark Mitchell
"The North Canterbury community have looked after me. It's been 19 years since I have been out of jail and I can walk through my community and the children there call out to me.
"They don't look at me in a different way anymore because they have actually known me and they trust in what they see."
Ellis has terminal bladder cancer and isn't sure how long he will live.
He said clearing his name is not only important to him, but all the people who have fought in his court over the years - some of whom have died.
"It becomes important when the number of people who have supported me and helped me over the years that have passed away; the stories that haven't been told of parents that chose sides and their marriages broke up; the crèche children that didn't believe it happened – so there is that particular aspect of it.
"There is also my mother who put her time into this - those people who have slipped away and have deserved an answer," he said.
Ellis hoped that if he dies before the hearing, these people may still get closure.
"I am hoping that the select committee might look at putting in something that would safeguard someone's right to still clear their name even when they have passed away," he said.
"There should be a mechanism if someone has shown intent to push on with their case, worked hard on the case, was shown intent to go for compensation - that his family have the right to have his name cleared, as do I."
Ellis has twice appealed to the Court of Appeal, the second time after a referral by the Governor-General.
The first appeal quashed three of his convictions, but the second appeal against the remaining 13 convictions was dismissed in 1999.
After the second Court of Appeal decision there was a ministerial inquiry in 2001 by Sir Thomas Eichelbaum, which concluded there was no risk of a miscarriage of justice.
There have also been unsuccessful petitions to Parliament for a Royal Commission in 2003, 2008 and 2014.
