Hello and welcome.
I don't know about the answers to your questions 1 and 2, and I haven't seen those situations mentioned on the threads at all. You'd need to ask INZ to be certain.
However, question 3 has some possibilities. You can sponsor her for a partner-sponsored temporary work visa after living together for
only a few weeks - this kind of visa can then be renewed until such time as you have 12 months of proof, and she can apply for Residence under the family stream. The details about the requirements and procedure are here.
http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra...milystream.htm
You can quickly build up evidence of the partnership by for instance, each taking responsibility for some of your joint household purchases, so that some of the weekly shop, or the new microwave, shows up on her bank statements. She can get some mail to come to your address, and if this involves NZ institutions, all the better - for instance, if she gets a NZ cellphone contract. Or joins some local club for an interest, or the gym, and they have your home as her address too. Get some written invitations which name both of you together. (And there are old threads on here - Search for evidence and partnership and they'll come up.)
It's also possible to collect partnership evidence while you are outside NZ, so if you lived together before, you may already have some time which could count, or if you were to go to her before she moves, you could apply for this visa then/there, which could short-circuit any possible hiccups with a visitor's visa which, actually, you don't intend to be simply for a visit.