The walk is across private land and you MUST obtain permission to do the walk from John Clearwater - the landowner - on 03 478 0274. Once you've got his okay, park the car just before the beach car park at the end of Allans Beach Road, next to the sign that indicates the start of the track. The walk starts almost at sea-level, so you will be ascending almost the whole of Mount Charles.

The walk starts at a stile over the fence next to the road and heads immediately uphill. Climb up the steep gully directly ahead of you. In winter the bottom half of the gully can be greasy and wet. After about 200 m of ascent you arrive at the head of the slip that forms the bottom of the gully and just above that is a track crossing the gully. Turn left onto the track and follow it around the spur of the hill onto a ridge above the gully. There is a scruffy marker pole just up the fence on the right of the fence. The views over Hoopers Inlet are just developing as you come up the spur. This bird's eye view improves as you ascend the hill. Continue up the fence for a further 400 m to arrive at a second stile over the fence that runs around the hillside.

Once over the fence turn left and walk left along the fence for 15 m. An indistinct track heads steeply up the hill to your right. Clamber up and follow it as it meanders up the hill, passing through several gates. There aren't many track markers along this stretch. Just keep your nose pointing more or less towards the summit - which will become visible after a short stretch of climbing - and follow the farm tracks. There are many slips and soil terraces on the sides of the Mount Charles volcano. The volcano itself is composed of basaltic breccia and olivine basalt at the summit and bedded tuff at lower altitudes. These rocks are derived from the first and second eruptive phases of the sequence of Otago Peninsula eruptions.

A further 30 minutes climbing brings you to a col that looks over to Papanui Inlet. The views are becoming broader and broader from the edge of the Victory Beach sandflats to the north, round to the Otago Harbour to the west and Allans Beach to the south.

The track ascends steeply from the col past a summit garden of mossy rocks onto the final ridge. The path passes through a low-growing windswept forest that offers wonderful shelter for sheep on blustery days. Close to the summit, cross a barbed wire fence on the improvised stile.

Finally, you reach the top and - on a clear day- stupendous views from north Otago to the Clutha River mouth stretch out before you. The drowned valleys of the Otago Harbour, Papanui Inlet and Hoopers Inlet are visible to the north and the wild Pacific Ocean crashes onto Allans Beach to the south. As the tide changes in Hoopers Inlet, sand and mud banks are exposed. At the seaward edge of Sandymount hill on the opposite side of the Inlet you may see waves crashing through an arch at sea level. The structure at the top of Mount Charles is a derelict trig station originally used for surveying the Peninsula.

Once you've seen enough of the views, descend the way you came.