Smith reeled off five unanswered legs en route to a 6-2 victory over third seed Bunting, averaging 99.81 and converting 86 per cent of his attempts at a double and notably sealing victory with a 124 checkout on the bullseye.
"It feels pretty awesome," Smith said. "Eight years since I last played on a PDC stage, so I'm pretty stoked.
"I think I played really well. What we're doing in the ADA, DPNZ and ANZ Premier League is setting us up for this sort of stuff. What the PDC is investing in the Oceanic region is showing in the results."
Smith's reward for beating Bunting is a quarter-final tie against fellow Australian Adam Leek, who survived six match darts against Ross Smith before securing victory in a last-leg decider on his dramatic World Series of Darts debut.
Top seed Gian van Veen averaged more than 97 in a 6-1 demolition of New Zealand's World Cup star Jonny Tata.
The Dutch No 1 will now take on 2022 runner-up Jonny Clayton in the last eight after the Welshman overturned a 4-2 deficit to defeat home favourite Haupai Puha.
Gerwyn Price, the 2022 champion, breezed past Mark Cleaver 6-1 to set up a quarter-final tie with Damon Heta, who reeled off five legs on the spin to come from behind and beat Ben Robb.
Josh Rock and James Wade also meet in the quarter-finals after overcoming Simon Whitlock and Kayden Milne, respectively.
2026 SkyCity New Zealand Darts Masters
Schedule of Play
All times UK and Ireland
Friday August 14
Last 16 (best of 11 legs)
Gerwyn Price 6-1 Mark Cleaver
Ross Smith 5-6 Adam Leek
James Wade 6-0 Kayden Milne
Josh Rock 6-4 Simon Whitlock
Gian van Veen 6-1 Jonny Tata
Jonny Clayton 6-5 Haupai Puha
Damon Heta 6-4 Ben Robb
Stephen Bunting 2-6 Raymond Smith
Saturday August 15 (from 8am)
Quarter-finals (best of 11 legs)
Gian van Veen vs Jonny Clayton
James Wade vs Josh Rock
Gerwyn Price vs Damon Heta
Raymond Smith vs Adam Leek
Semi-finals (best of 13 legs)
TBC
Final (best of 15 legs)
TBC
Darts returns to Sky Sports with the BoyleSports World Grand Prix live from September 28 to October 4, where Luke Littler will be out to defend the title. Stream darts and more top sport with NOW.
