March 17, 2025
Comparing the Great Divide to New Zealand
It’s like comparing your favourite foods!
I didn’t know what to expect when I tackled both rides. The Great Divide was my first epic bikepacking trip. And although I had a lot of backpacking and some bikepacking experience you never know how your body and your mind will stand up to such a long ride. And completing the GD is sort of like getting your bikepacking badge because any bikepacker has at least heard about the GD.
Surface
The surface of the two rides I think is the biggest differentiator. The GD is only 10% sealed road, whereas the TA is over 50% sealed road. That alone makes for significantly less effort for the TA by comparison. I could not find the statistics for the S2S but my guess is it’s still more sealed road as a percentage of the total kilometres compared to the GD. The gravel roads in New Zealand are significantly better maintained than the roads on the GD. We rode at least 30 km on one stretch on the GD just searching for any piece of road that wasn’t washboard; and being shaken for that long certainly isn’t pleasant. And that’s not to say they both don’t have great sections as they do.
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The TA and the S2S both incorporate cycle trails into the routes which is amazing. I absolutely loved the experience of riding every one of the cycle trails. These sections of trail you will inherently ride the slowest because of the surface and often the amount of gates you pass through.
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3 weeks ago
So, for the surface and level of difficulty related to the surface I’d say the GD is an 8/10 and New Zealand is a 6/10. Keep in mind that all of my ratings are completely subjective and that I rode the GD on a MTB with 2.8” tires and New Zealand on a gravel bike with 700x48 mm which is a big difference.
Gradient
Both New Zealand and the GD have a serious amount of climbing. And for the average rider this would be a colossal understatement. I mean this is serious climbing when you consider that I’m close to 62,000 m in New Zealand (500 additional km in NZ) and the GD is 52,000 m of climbing total. To put that into perspective that’s the elevation of Mount Everest 6.7 times! Bonkers.
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The climbing in New Zealand on the whole was easier since a lot of it was on sealed roads with designed switchbacks to cut the gradient. The two major exceptions are Omarama Saddle and Duffer’s Saddle on the S2S that are as hard or harder than anything on the GD.
So, for climbing I’d mark them close but differentiate them based on a much higher proportion of gravel climbing on the GD. So 7/10 for New Zealand and 8/10 for the GD.
Remoteness
Is that a word?! Hands down the GD is more remote. And this is a huge difference between the two rides. In New Zealand you are almost always 1 day away from food and you can usually get your morning coffee as well as this is a cafe culture. It’s well known now how much I enjoyed the coffee experience here in New Zealand. On the GD there was one stretch of nearly 4 days without resupply and we averaged 112 km each day riding.
Also, the quality of the stores on average was higher for New Zealand. Shout out to 4-Square as they have everything you need in a small footprint making shopping a breeze. On the Divide we either shopped in conventional large grocery stores which is time consuming or we only had access to tiny stores with barely adequate choice for long stretches.
The GD is a diner culture and the portions in the US are ginormous so a biker can get filled up. We tried to incorporate a diner meal whenever possible and that was a real treat for that trip.
The food quality in New Zealand is very high. And that’s not just my opinion. I had several other bikepackers say the same thing without prompting. Breakfast (the meal I mostly ate) is presented nicely and often incorporated avocados. So New Zealand gets the nod here.
So, for this rating New Zealand is a 4/10 and the GD is a 8/10.
Scenery
It’s hard to compare over 4,500 km of scenery succinctly but I’ll try.
On the GD you start in beautiful Canada. And the scenery for the first 350 km delivers big time. Then you ride through Montana forever and it’s pretty, although you do spend a lot of time going through pastoral land. I happen to enjoy that as well but one could argue it’s not spectacular. Then there’s a short burst through Idaho which is nice but not incredible. Then Wyoming which was pretty followed by Colorado which lived up to expectations of being very beautiful with great colours (colourful Colorado). Finally New Mexico was the most unique scenery for me. It’s also the point on the trip where I had a feeling in the desert that we are really out here; it’s a feeling of complete insignificance in the world.
And the end of the GD what can I say. It’s a fence! Yuck.
And then there’s New Zealand. This is a beautiful country. The forest (jungle/bush) here is special. I felt so alive cycling the Timber Trail and so many other tracks that were deep in the forest. And so many sealed roads that were completely shaded with giant ferns hanging onto the road. I loved that riding and it was completely new to me.
Because New Zealand is small as well it incorporates so many ocean views along the way. And the water is warm enough to swim in! And then there are the lakes. What can I say about the lakes! Brilliant blue in colour and massive.
There’s also a lot of rural riding in New Zealand. Must love sheep! And I did. I’ll cherish my 4 experiences with sheep herding that are completely random but should be expected and enjoyed on this route. On the GD you must love cows because there are minimal fences and cows in every state, including New Mexico although I don’t understand how they survive there on that vegetation.
And now it comes down to rating where New Zealand gets the nod at 9/10 and the GD is a 6/10. Both are great but I wanted to stress that for me New Zealand stands out. And if a Kiwi went to do the GD they might flip that rating because as humans we love things that are different.
Overall Difficulty
Here I give the nod to the GD because of the surface and the remoteness. It makes a big difference. We camped so many nights in the wild on the GD. And while that was epic it’s also much more effort. There were only a few wild nights for me in New Zealand and the holiday parks are dreamy. I was so clean in New Zealand by comparison.
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As a sidebar I think it’s crazy that when you ride past someone you can smell their shampoo and soap. I hate to think what their experience is like riding past me :)
So, the GD gets 8/10 and NZ gets 6/10.
Logistics
I’m going to remove flying from the logistics to make it the same from anywhere.
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On the GD it’s dead easy to get a shuttle from Calgary to Banff or Jasper to start (start in Banff in my opinion). There are bike shops in most major towns and in that regard I’d say the two rides are similar. The end of the GD was a challenge with a very long 4 hour shuttle ride back to El Paso from Antelope Wells.
In NZ I chose not to go up to Cape Reigna which is also a 5 hour shuttle, although you can fly 75% of that from Auckland. There are multiple boat rides in New Zealand. There are two on the TA North Island (both with riding alternates) and then the 3-3.5 hour ferry to the South Island. Then on the South Island there’s a ferry to get across and Queenstown. And you can also take boats at Doubtful Sound and Milford Sound. None of the boat logistics were challenging and they are used to bike traffic.
So, overall neither of the logistics were difficult and I’d score the GD a 6/10 and NZ a 5/10.
Would you do it again?
If a friend asked me to come back to New Zealand next year I’d say when do we leave. If the same friend asked me to do the GD I’d say let me think about it.
The GD is a passage for a bikepacker. It’s remote. It’s epic. And it’s also hard. If either of both of my kids wanted to ride the GD on the other hand I’d do it for sure.
So, I guess that’s the overall assessment. NZ is more of a vacation than the GD but you should definitely do both.
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3 weeks ago
Congratulations on your S2S ride! And, yes we need to meet up in Canada! 🇨🇦
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