I'm probably just as much a beginner as you but we have just had our first offer accepted on a property in NZ. We made the offer 15 April (Friday) and it was accepted on the Monday (18th). We made it subject to a satisfactory building report which we organized that same day. Normally we would also have included 'subject to finance' but as we already had that in place we didn't bother making it a condition. We have also requested a LIM.

We have been told our offer should become unconditional within two weeks and at that point we pay our deposit. After that it should take about 4-5 weeks for everything to be finalized. Don't know if this is normal but it's what we've been told.

I'd be happy to keep you informed of our progress and let you know how long things actually take.
Cheers