How to upgrade a remote box from 10.10 to 12.04 LTS when apt doesn't work?

I have a virtual private server that runs the out-of-date Ubuntu 10.10. I'd like to upgrade to 12.04 LTS.

Currently apt doesn't work on this box, and the command do-release-upgrade is not found.

There is nothing on this VPS that I need to save, I'm OK with wiping it clean and installing 12.04, but I don't know how to do that when my only access is to a terminal remotely.