Peter Oettli was born and brought up in Switzerland and received most of his schooling there. He immigrated to New Zealand with his parents, two brothers and a sister when he was in his teens. That is when he experienced the culture shock of coming to New Zealand. At the time, he hardly noticed it; he was too busy being a teenager, but on reflection he has found many instances of it in the period when he became acclimatised to New Zealand society. He finished his secondary schooling and attended university in New Zealand, earning degrees in English and German literature.
After a period doing doctoral research in Germany, he was appointed lecturer in German at the newly founded University of Waikato in Hamilton. After more than 30 years of teaching, as well as two terms of office as dean of a faculty, he retired as Pro Vice-Chancellor (International) at the university in 2004. Apart from his professional publications, Peter Oettli has published a book on New Zealand in Switzerland and has also presented a number of radio programmes on New Zealand on the Swiss broadcasting service. His interests include sailing, reading, travelling and video-making (not necessarily always in that order!) He has travelled widely as part of his former job, and now, in retirement, leads groups of tourists all over the world, but at the end of each trip, he is always very happy to return to New Zealand, which he now regards as his home.