New to iOS and VoiceOver and in need of some help

If you are setting up your iPad as "new," press the sleep/wake button once, then swipe to the right with 3 fingers to start set up. Voiceover involves a lot of double tapping so you should be able to follow the on screen instructions. If that doesn't work, you can turn voiceover off by pressing the home button 3 times in a row and ask someone to help you set up your iPad. After you are done setting up your iPad, turn voiceover back on and double tap or slide to unlock, then scroll down on your home screen till you hear settings, double tap settings, general, then scroll down to autolock. You could change your autolock settings to "never" so that your iPad doesn't lock automatically.

Hi. Here are your questions, with my answers following them for context...

Unlocking screen. Currently seems to lock within 1 minute after initiation. Is it best to set this to "never lock" and then manually do this task henceforth?
I personally set my iPhone to lock itself after 5 minutes of inactivity, although you can always set it to always stay unlocked if you like. The choice is purely a matter of personal preference.

Is the unlock and lock button the same as wake/sleep?
Yep, sure is. I always refer to it as the lock/unlock button myself.

-Setting language to English only. My sighted wife used the slider to aid me and VoiceOver went into different languages.

Thus, can other languages be disabled?
When you first get your iDevice, it says hello in a number of languages, so you can choose your language during setup and it should stick to that language all the time. For VoiceOver you can add voices with different international dialects like UK English, Australian English, Irish English, etc. But the iDevice itself should stay in the language you specified during setup.

-Per the iPad, when does one use the keyboard versus gestures?

You would use the keyboard when you want to write an email or send a text message, any time you want to input text.

-Using the one-finger explore gesture, why do I only hear clicks when moving across the status bar? Is this due to screen being locked?

When the screen is locked you won't be able to do anything on the screen at all, hence why you'd want to lock it. You may be using a particular app with unlabeled elements, so that when you use the one-finger swipe gesture, you may hear clicks but nothing from VoiceOver. Since I'm not there I can't tell you why that's happening but that's purely a guess. 99 times out of a hundred, unless you're using an app without VoiceOver support of some kind, you should hear both clicks and VoiceOver speaking at the same time.

FYI am using a tutorial at VoiceOverEasy.net and have had to make some personal orientation changes due to the presence of the keyboard attached and screen being in front of me.
Yep, that's ok. It's your iDevice so you can change it to however it works best for you.
You can lock the orientation in what's called the control center. Find the very top edge of your screen,the status bar area if that makes it easier for you, and then swipe up with 3 fingers and VoiceOver should announce that you're in the control center. There is a switch button for locking the orientation. Make sure it's in the orientation you want, and then double-tap on the switch button and turn it on. Lock orientation should now be on so you should be good. it won't change unless you change it again. Some apps will change orientation on their own so don't let this alarm you too much. That's just how they're displayed.
I hope some of these answers make things a bit more clear for you.

Hello,

IF you want to drive law enforcement officers crazy, set your device to automatically lock. LOL Seriously though, it’s a good idea to set your device to automatically lock after a set time. If you ever lose your device or it gets stolen, it will protect all your info and data stored on it. In addition, the device will be useless to whomever finds or steals it.

Tell your wife to stop playing with your ipad and get her own. LOL. The downside of letting other people use your device is they may make changes to it. For example, they could change the language, alter the Voiceover settings or revert the changes you made to make the device more useful to you.

If you haven’t already done so, enable the triple click option to turn on VOicOver. This way, if someone alters your settings or turns off voiceover, you can turn it back on. BTW, you can always ask Siri to turn VO off or on. If you decide to let a sighted person use your device, turn off VO before letting them use it. Otherwise, they’re likely to make all sort of changes before figuring out how to turn off VO.

Since you’re new with your iPad, I suggest you learn to use it without the keyboard. This way, if you find yourself without a keyboard, you won’t be stuck. Once you are familiar with the built in keyboard and gestures, then use the keyboard. These are some of the things I tell my clients who are using an IOS device for the first time.

HTH and good luck.

When I learned to use my first iDevice, there was no VoiceOver Easy and I did not know about AppleVis. I was almost on my own, but I persevered with just learning a little every day. Nine months after I got my iDevice with only a little training, I purchased my first app for entertainment.

Good luck.