Ken Ring

Ken Ring was born in England during the Second World War. His exact date of birth has not been published; the National Library of New Zealand records his birth year as about 1940. He emigrated with his family to New Zealand in the 1960s and settled in Auckland, where he lived for most of his adult life, latterly in Titirangi.

Ring had a varied working life. He taught mathematics and worked as a musician, actor, clown, speech therapist, private tutor to children with learning difficulties, teacher of English as a second language and part-time teachers' college lecturer. In the 1970s he performed as a magician called Mr Goodtimes, and he later toured schools as "Mathman", using magic tricks to teach arithmetic. He was president of the New Zealand Society of Magicians, wrote books on mathematics, magic, teaching and music, and co-wrote the light-hearted Pawmistry: How to Read Your Cat's Paws.

His forecasting grew out of years living a largely self-sufficient life of fishing, camping and hunting with his family in Opotiki, where he noticed storms coinciding with the highest tides of the month. He came to believe that the moon creates an atmospheric tide that can be plotted years ahead, and from 1999 he published an annual New Zealand weather almanac, later adding Australian (2006) and Irish (2010) editions. He produced fishing calendars and gardening guides, wrote for farming and fishing magazines, provided monthly Moon Man outlooks for the New Zealand Herald's The Country section, appeared as a weather commentator on Australian television and said he forecast for events such as the Melbourne Cup and Ellerslie Flower Show.

Scientists consistently rejected his methods. A MetService forecaster who tested his 2005 predictions found only one match in 40 weather events, and Ring's earthquake claims after the Canterbury earthquakes of 2010 and 2011, including talk of risk around 20 March 2011, drew criticism from seismologists, sceptics and the cabinet minister Nick Smith. Ring maintained that he was helping people and that he did not predict anything to the date.

Ring was married to Judy, who died before him, and they had children and grandchildren. After a serious stroke left him in a wheelchair and affected his speech, his daughter Miri, who lived nearby, helped care for him. He learned to dictate his books using voice recognition software and continued to paint and draw with his working hand. He said the public criticism of his earthquake comments had hurt his family and grandchildren.

Ken Ring's family announced on 21 October 2026, in a post on his own Facebook page, that he had died following a short illness. The post described him as "a much-loved father and grandfather who will be greatly missed by us all" and said he had inspired them to think outside the box and believe that anything was possible. His death was reported by the New Zealand Herald and Stuff. The cause of death and his age were not made public, and funeral arrangements had not been announced.

Ring is remembered as one of the most polarising commentators New Zealand has produced. To his supporters, especially farmers and anglers, he was a self-taught observer who encouraged people to look for patterns in nature; the veteran angling writer John Moran called his fishing page his "fishing bible". To scientists and sceptics, his forecasts were unscientific and, after the Canterbury earthquakes, harmful to a frightened public. His long-running almanacs, his magic shows for children and the heated debate around his predictions made the Moon Man a familiar name across New Zealand, Australia and Ireland.