Last refuge of the something or another

New Zealand as the last safe haven. It is an SF trope that goes back at least to Heinlein (even if he didn't actually like it here). Not that it is all that common - you can go a long time between encountering mentions. Just a coincidence then that the last two books I have read both use NZ as a last refuge. Paul McAuley really only mentioned it in passing as the place that the rich and powerful fled to as the ecosphere was collapsing - Gardens of the Sun being set well after that collapse.

But in Ken Macleod's The Night Sessions there is a bigger role for New Zealand as the destinations for fanatics who have fled a modern Reformation that has marginalised religions to the extent that they have no place in the running of the world. That is an uncomfortable thought because overall we are not currently a particularly religious country. But, why oh why did Ken have to turn Waimangu thermal valley into a creationist theme park complete with animatronic dinosaurs, cave men and Adam and Eve. I understand the storytelling reasons but it seems like sacrilege - but then given the theme of the book, perhaps that is the point.