[global $wp_query and get_query_var()] Don't return the same values

So I found some inconsistance in my expectations and I would like to clear that :).

I have the fallowing snippet for pagination:

if ( ! function_exists( 'wpf_pagination' ) ) {
	function wpf_pagination() {
		global $wp_query;
		$big = 999999999; // This needs to be an unlikely integer

		// For more options and info view the docs for paginate_links()
		// http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/paginate_links
		$paginate_links = paginate_links( array(
			'base'      => str_replace( $big, '%#%', get_pagenum_link( $big ) ),
			'current'   => max( 1, get_query_var( 'paged' ) ),
			'total'     => $wp_query->max_num_pages,
			'end_size'  => 2,
			'mid_size'  => 5,
			'prev_next' => True,
			'prev_text' => __( '« Previous', 'wpf' ),
			'next_text' => __( 'Next »', 'wpf' ),
			'type'      => 'list',
		) );

		// Display the pagination if more than one page is found
		if ( $paginate_links ) {
			echo '<div class="pagination">';
			echo $paginate_links;
			echo '</div>';
		}
	} // end wpf_pagination()
}

I want to remove the global $wp_query and replace $wp_query->max_num_pages with get_query_var( 'max_num_pages' ). The problem now is that it doenst return anything?

When I add the fallowing after global $wp_query:

echo get_query_var( 'max_num_pages' );
		echo '<br>||';
		echo $wp_query->max_num_pages;

Then I will see:
||2

I have looked at the source at http://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/3.5.1/wp-includes/query.php and I cant see why it doesn’t give me the same result?

So who can tell me what I am missing?