Hi Sona & babyruffkins,
Go the the link below:
https://onlineservices.immigration.govt.nz/?STATUS
Login to your account (same as the one you did your EOI), it should show all your current and previous applications under "Immigration Applications"
My resident visa application shown up yesterday with status "Pending"
And Sona, I think what INZ meant is, they used to update and tell you what stage it is (e.g. waiting for NSC). Now it will just show "PENDING" and the next one would be "APPROVED", with nothing in between.
It's just an indicating that the application is now in their system and something is happening.