He has not read A Canticle for Leibowitz.
Being smart, powerful, rich and bunkered only ignited a killing fury among all those who suffered from the wars created by the powerful, rich smarties who eventually surfaced.
The back woods of New Zealand is hard to get too from North America none of the keyboard tuff guys from this continent will ever be able to touch the super wealthy that’s why They built bunkers in such a remote part of a super remote island far FAR from the as atmospheric currents that would be carrying fallout from a Northern hemisphere nuclear exchange. These guys are smart they have private airstrips at these locations and G500/600 jets can make the flight from anywhere in North America direct no stops. These are not little shipping container sized underground doomsday nut job bunkers billionaire are building small underground cities with space for their staff too. You can bank on then having space for their pilot and his family thus ensuring safe passage to the location. What better way to make sure you get there than to the your pilot’s and his families survival to your own. As for the construction workers those were almost assuredly imported temporary labor not native New Zealanders they were flown back home after the build the South Pacific makes a hellova moat. It’s not like these guys built then just outside a major city in New Zealand these are hundreds of km from the cities in very remote rugged terrain the walk to get there would kill most people. Fly in is the only way in or out. If I had a billion to spare I’d also buy a couple thousand hectares in the deep mountains of New Zealand with a private airstrip it’s definitely the way to go for apocalypse prepping.