The 18-year-old was selected in New Zealand's under-19 squad for the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup to be held next month in the United Arab Emirates.
When contacted by the Taieri Times last week, the right-arm medium-pace bowler said he was ''absolutely stoked'' by the selection.
''It's been a pretty long process over 12 months to get it finalised, so it's pretty awesome,'' he said.
Hunter played in a triangular series in Australia against the hosts and India and dismissed Black Caps captain Brendon McCullum in a club match in Dunedin late last year, but his selection for the World Cup topped it all.
''This is what I have been working towards for the whole summer, so this is right up there,'' he said.
In preparation for the tournament, the under-19s played in the National Provincial A Tournament in January and Hunter is a member of the Otago under-19 team playing in the National Under-19 Tournament, which finishes today.
Bowler found the Canterbury wickets used for the under-19 tournament unforgiving - good preparation ahead of the World Cup, he said.
''It's pretty tough up here for a bowler ... they are pretty slow and pretty flat, but they reckon the Dubai tracks will be similar,'' he said.
He took three wickets against the Central Districts under-19s in an economical spell last Saturday.
Hunter went for 33 runs in his 10 overs during the four wicket win by Otago.
''I got some wickets, which is pretty good because I have been pretty dry,'' he said.
New Zealand plays two warm-up matches before starting its campaign against Sri Lanka in Sharjah on February 14.
He was looking forward to the challenge of bowling on the wickets in Dubai and Sharjah.
''It's going to be an awesome experience ... the cricket's going to be pretty exciting,'' Hunter said.
The preparation and balance of the squad meant the team was ''pretty confident'' ahead of the World Cup, he said.
''We took a lot of confidence out of the last A tournament because we came up against some big names, so we are trying to win it [the World Cup] or if not at least make the final.''
