Four decades ago, when Rotorua celebrity "Aunty Bea" Yates wrote One Day a Taniwha, she never imagined it would go worldwide on something called an iPad.
In conjunction with Kiwa Media, One Day a Taniwha can now be accessed around the world on iTunes.
Anyone who has an iPhone or iPad can
download the story, written, narrated and sung by Mrs Yates.
"It's so exciting. I think it is wonderful. I think it's a first for us. It's a big first."
Mrs Yates wrote One Day a Taniwha and other books on A3 paper in the 1970s and had her Rotorua Lakes High School students illustrate them when she was appointed the first Maori itinerant teacher in the Rotorua district.
She said she would have never imagined back then her books would be able to be seen on something called an iPad and wondered what type of media they would be available on in another 40 years' time.
"There were very few resources in the 1970s. I was the first itinerant teacher. I was the resource."
The Kiwa Media Q Book format allows a child to read and sing along in Maori, English, Spanish, Japanese and French. The colours in the pictures can be changed.
Mrs Yates said she now had plans to have another of her books, Hoha te Taniwha, put on iTunes. Hoha te Taniwha tells the story of a taniwha that snored too loudly and left Awahou and went to Mokoia Island.
