The 20-year-old man faced cross-examination in a jury trial before Judge Michael Turner in the Dunedin District Court yesterday.
Crown prosecutor Pip Norman questioned the man, who faces one charge of sexual violation by rape, about his version of events.
"What you told police happened is different to what you are saying now," Ms Norman said.
"It’s because I could not think straight at the time ... I was drunk and nervous," the defendant said.
The man, who required an interpreter throughout the proceedings, did not have an interpreter present at the time of his initial police interview.
He said his poor English, the amount of alcohol he consumed after the alleged incident and stress contributed to his initial scattered account of the evening.
"So you are saying that it’s essentially a misunderstanding," Ms Norman said.
"A lot of misunderstanding," the defendant said.
Under oath yesterday, the man described how he was sober when the pair had engaged in kissing, hugging and touching while parked at the Signal Hill lookout.
"When I asked her if she wanted to have sex she said ‘yes, but we have to look at the view first’," the man said.
The defendant said while the woman was initially "wobbly" when they first met up in the Octagon, she did not present as "too drunk" to consent.
He said she had been talking normally and he "double-checked" for consent when the pair moved to the back seat.
Earlier this week, the jury heard the 111 call made on December 24, 2022, by the highly distressed Christchurch complainant.
Six minutes after the call, police found the woman alone and "partly in a gutter" in Signal Hill Rd, the court heard.
The woman said she remembered being turned away from a Dunedin bar and her next memory was waking up while the man was having sex with her in a car.
The man said he tried to drop the woman at home afterwards and did not see signs she was in any sort of distress.
The woman requested to be dropped on the side of the road but the defendant said he did not think it was responsible to leave her there alone.
He urged the woman to contact her mother for a lift home and was reassured when the complainant said she had already done so, the court heard.
The man said he returned to the Octagon to drink with friends and was questioned shortly after.
He was arrested and immediately taken to the Dunedin police station.
Earlier this week, the jury watched his interview with Detective Mark Durant.
"I know she was awake - she talked to me... We kissed and then sex," the defendant said.
During cross-examination this week the complainant showed she was unclear on how much she drank, whether the man had suggested consensual sex and whether she had moved to the back seat of her own volition.
The woman said she could not remember large chunks and had been “very foggy”.
Asked by counsel Meg Scally whether it was possible she had communicated consent but might not remember, the woman said: "No. I was asleep, passed out."
The trial continues today.
